The Destruction of Innocence
by Sanru
Summary: Flying Through Turbulent Skies part 1, Neoteric compliant: Five youngling are forced from the safety of their youth center out onto the war torn streets of Vos as the Civil War begins. What they are exposed to will haunt them for vorns to come.
1. Chapter 1: Initializing Flight Plans

Disclaimer: If only they were mine.

Authors Note: This is a first part in a miniseries spanning the lives of the Aerialbots from there time in the youth center to their eventual arrival on earth.

This story is based in the Neoteric Alternate Universe that I've been developing so if you are wondering where in canon the Aerials were in a youth center hopefully that is now cleared up.

* * *

The Destruction of Innocence

Initializing Flight Plans

* * *

He didn't know what to do. It had to be one of the hardest moments in his life to date. Should he help them or stay safe and hidden. He bit his lip components as he watched in horror at what was happening- what he _knew_ was going to happen- directly below his hiding place. He still didn't know what he would do if he built up the courage to do anything but he felt like he had to do something.

He wanted to help the feisty little flyer struggling in the rebel's grip as he belted out a series of curses that he had never heard come from a youngling before. If he helped them the rebel would surely come after him too. He had been quiet up until now, listening to the cries around him as the Decepticons systematically went through the compound killing off and destroying everything and anything that moved. He had wanted to do something then too but he had promised his creator not to move or do anything. Windswept had left so long ago and judging by the sounds of the fighting moving away from this room and the fact he still hadn't returned made him worry that his creator was gone to the well of sparks.

His denta bit harder into his lip components, trying not to cry himself as the wailing of the youngling on the floor at the Decepticons peds reached an earsplitting screech as he begged the much large mech to put the fighting jetling down. The one on the floor was slightly larger than the youngling in the mech's grip but there seemed to be something wrong with his legs. When they had burst through the door into his Windswept's quarters, the smaller one was carrying the other on his back while the larger one whimpered and whined. The little one was able to carry his companion several steps into the room before the Decepticon stomped into the room and reached for them.

The little one had then surprised everyone else in the room by dropping his companion and launching himself on small thrusters located along the plating on his hips into the soldier's face. He had smiled at the youngling's darning as he gave the 'con five rapid fire punches in the optics and mouth components, yelling out threats the entire time. Startled as he was, the Decepticon was not about to be beaten by a youngling and grabbed the much smaller mech growling low as he yanked him away. He had nearly revealed himself then, wanting to come to the youngling's aid as he kicked and screamed at his captor, but he couldn't disobey his creator. No matter how much he wanted to help, Windswept had made him promise.

But Windswept could also be deactivated…

"Fraggin' little psycho glitched pit-spawn!" the Decepticon growled as he pulled a large energon knife from subspace. The purple-blue growl coming off it briefly silenced the two younglings for a click before they began to wail and scream even louder than before. "This'll is what a real fight is like!" He was gritting his denta so hard that the cabling in his neck hurt but he still couldn't seem to make himself move as the glow from the knife played off his chassis. He looked at the little youngling in the mech's hand and then back at the youngling on the floor.

Who was now staring straight at him with wide terrified optics.

While the glow of the energon knife wasn't that bright it lit up the mostly dark room. His creator had turned the lights out on purpose, hoping that no one would think that a youngling was up in the guard unit's bunker and pass by the room without searching it. But, as the youth center began taking damage, the automatic emergency lights had come on, bathing everything in their dull red glow. He hadn't been worried someone would see him. Windswept had shoved him up into a shelf above the ceiling lights that was hidden from view from most anybot unless you took the central light fixture down or were sitting on the floor at a thirty eight degree angle from the shelf which just happened to be where the injured youngling sat.

The wide, blue, terrified optics drilled into his and he couldn't look away from them. They were silently begging him for help much more effectively than words would have been able to do. He swallowed and looked over at the soldier and the other sparkling but neither seemed to realize that the mechling on the floor had stopped screaming and was now staring at something on the ceiling. The soldier was going to know soon enough after he deactivated the mechling in his grasp and reached for the other one. His eyes gravitated to the blue optics again and he made himself wink to the frightened jetling on the floor causing the mech's optics to brighten up with hope that he hoped was not displaced.

Disobeying his creator he could live with but he would never be able to live with himself if he didn't at least try to help these two younglings.

He slide off the shelf soundlessly but the only thing that muffled his peds hitting the floor was the sounds of the little youngling's screams of profanity which he kept yelling at the top of his vocalizer even though he could now easily see him. He silently thanked him for his performance and moved before he could really process what he was doing. He grabbed the back of knife and twisted it out of the Decepticon's servo. "What the frag?" the large mech said as he turned around to see who had stolen his knife. He didn't give the solider another chance to do anything, stabbing him quickly in a transformation seam in his side with his own knife and then swiftly slashing at the cabling in his neck.

Energon poured freely from both areas as the soldier grasped at his neck, trying to stem the flow of energon running down his chassis, dropping the little jetling in the process. An odd gurgling came from his damaged vocalizer but he didn't want to run the risk of the Decepticon calling for back up through his internal communications equipment. He slammed his shoulder into the taller mech's chest and stabbed in from the side seam on the mech's armor. The large mech jerked and twitched before slumping to the ground, the energon knife was pulled from his servo as the mech dropped with it still embedded into his spark chamber.

He didn't move for a full astrosecond after that, trembling slightly as energy continued to rush over his circuits from the brief but violent fight. At least that was what he told himself as he tried not to process the fact that he had just offlined another mech. Windswept had always insisted that he learned how to defend himself, especially with Cybertron on the brink of civil war, but he never thought he would ever have to use any of those skills. He turned towards the door, straining to listen over the rushing of his systems to make sure there wasn't another Decepticon waiting out in the hallway from his friend. The two younglings were also quiet, but whether they were listening for more Decepticons or not, he couldn't tell.

After a breem of no movement or noise coming from the door, he vented a sigh of relief as he tried to prevent his servos from shaking. As if by some unsent signal, the three younglings in the room looked at each other. The larger of the two youngling's optics looked like they were about to pop out of his helmet as he clutched both of his servos to his chest plates, shivering so hard his plating was faintly rattling. He looked so innocent and terrified that he slowly reached out and patted the youngling on the helmet, careful not to injure him further. "I know you're scared but don't worry, your safe now," he whispered quietly, surprised that his voice stayed steady and his servo stopped tremblingly for a klick. He didn't know why he made that promise when he wasn't even certain he could keep it but it seemed to put the youngling at ease as he relaxed marginally. Even giving him a tentative smile.

"Right," said the other youngling who had his arms crossed and a hip thrown off to one side. He was frowning and the visor over his optics gave him a more distrusting look than thankful. "And what makes you say that? Once the other slagheads realize he's missing they're going to come looking for him and then we're really going to be in trouble. I don't think dropping out of the ceiling is going to work on a whole group of them." He groused kicking the graying form next to him and grumbling a few choice words under his breath.

He could tell he was going to have a problem with the visored flyer's attitude. The youngling he had just reassured looked like he was about to start crying now. "That would indicate that we are going to be remaining here which we're not." His creator was going to have him by his ailerons at this rate but the visored mechling was right. "We have to move and get out of the youth center. If we stay here any longer there is a good chance we will be found and offlined."

"We can't leave the youth center!" snapped the smallest mech. "If we're caught outside the gates, we'll be separated and put in the detention wing!"

"Then stay here," he snapped losing what little patience he had in his frayed nerve circuits though mindful to keep his voice down. "I would rather end up alone in a detention wing then offlined in a pool of my own energon!" He yanked the knife out of the Decepticon -trying not to look at the wounds he had caused- if things were going to get rough he was going to want to have a weapon. He stepped over the gray chassis and hurried to fill his subspace with several containers of energon that his creator had kept on servo in a cabinet on the side of the room. He also snatched several datapads off the desk nearby knowing that he would most likely never be coming back to his Windswept's rooms. He wanted to keep a piece of normalcy with him, no matter how small. He just hoped that he would be able to find Windswept again.

He paused in rifling through the desk, and headed for his creator's berth room. If he wasn't coming back he might as well take his creator's pride and joys with him. Despite the fact he wasn't allowed to touch them. If anything it would be a welcoming sound for him to hear Windswept yelling at him for not only leaving the room and his hiding spot but also taking his spare rifle and blaster. He subspaced the knife and the rifle as well as the extra energy packs stored under the berth for them.

He left his creator's room and headed for his own but paused as the entire room swayed causing the youngling on the floor to squeak and the visored one to stumble as he tried to regain his balance. He paused and listened for a moment, but he couldn't hear anything. He looked longingly at his berth room, wanting to go in and grab what he could, but something in the back of his processor told him that if he didn't leave Windswept's rooms now he never would. "Alright I'm leaving," he turned to the two other younglings in the middle of the room. As much as he wanted to snatch the two of them up and get them as far away from the youth center as he could, he knew that they deserved to make that decision on their own. Even if he didn't like it. "Are you two coming with me?"

The smaller mech opened his mouth, obliviously about to snap at him again judging by the way his servos were in tight fists at his sides, but stopped when the other youngling put a servo on his arm. "No Slingshot, don't," he said in a very quiet voice. "We should stay together. It'll be safer." Slingshot gave the youngling next to him a look that said exactly what he thought of that, but it seemed he too was susceptible to the mech's wide blue optics. He huffed and crossed his arms.

"Alright, then where are we going to go?" Slingshot asked sounding resigned but still willing to argue his point.

"Anywhere but here," he said as he strode towards them. For a minute he saw both of them start and realized that it wasn't till now he was actually standing up to his full height. He was huge compared to his age group, almost a full helmet large than the size of an adult minibot frame, which put him about two helmets higher than the taller of the two mechlings and almost three higher than Slingshot. He could imagine that he was more than a little intimidating to the two smaller mechs.

"Don't worry," he reassured them as he knelt down and lifted the injured mech up onto his back. "I'll do everything I can to keep you two safe," Slingshot scoffed at that but didn't actually say anything. "Hold onto my shoulder plates and don't let go no matter what happens." He waited until he was sure that the mechling had a good grip on his shoulder before he stood up. Noticing the sudden lost look on Slingshot's faceplates, he added, "Do you want me to carry you too?" He wasn't sure how far he could go with both of them hanging off him.

An indignant look spread across his face. "I can walk just fine!" He snapped and then his thrusters pushed him up in the air so he was optic level with him. "And I can fly without transforming!" he said smugly pointing a finger into his chestplate. "And don't you forget it."

"I won't," he said trying to resist the urge to grab and shake the youngling's attitude out of his chassis. "Let's get out of here."

Slingshot landed and then hurried towards the door, holding up a hand for him to stop. "I'll check the hallway. Stay back."

He sighed but followed obediently behind the other mech who had let the door cycle open and was peaking past the doorframe to look up and down the hallway. "Sorry about him, Slingshot means well." The mech clinging to him whispered in a soft voice so that Slingshot won't overhear him. "He's just trying to protect me." That explained his lost look a few moments ago when he picked this mechling up. Slingshot had wanted to carry the other jetling but he had unintentionally taken that away from him. No wonder he wanted to run point now. "By the way I'm Fireflight, what's your designation?" The mechling said.

Slingshot was waving his hand, silently calling him forward so he assumed the hallway was clear. "I'm Silverbolt," he said priming the gun in his servos as he crept forward and out the door, Slingshot was moving quickly down the hallway. Moving from cover to cover, taking a moment to scan every time he paused. "Keep and optic out behind us, we don't want somebot sneaking up on us."

"Gottcha 'Bolt," came the near silent whisper as he felt the mechling twist around enough to guard their rear.

Silverbolt tried to ignore the shaking in his components as he followed Slingshot carefully down the hall.

-Break-

When the first explosion rocked the youth center and woke the other younglings from their recharge causing them to scream and chirp in distress, Skydive had known exactly what was going on. He had heard the rumors of civil war that the caretakers had talked about when they didn't realize he was listening in. He noticed the strained looks about their optics as they reassured him and the other younglings in his wing that there was nothing to fear, that they were safe as long as they were in the youth center. He understood why they had been lying to them but now it was only going to cause confusion and anarchy. If they had just told them up front and set up a well thought out and logical escape or an emergency plan none of this chaos would be happening.

Caretakers and younglings alike were running about, screaming and yelling, creating such a canopy of noise that it all sounded like one loud scream of panic to his audios. As far as he could tell, he was the only one not giving in to his fear and screaming his helmet off. He grabbed the collection of datapads out of his trunk in his room and tucked them away in his subspace before looking about trying to get an idea if there was some form of system or order to what was going on. He wasn't surprised, but very disappointed, when he saw none.

The next explosion shook everything so hard that everyone fell from their peds and the sound of falling and breaking debris drowned out their terrified and panicky screams. He had fallen on his chestplate but was quickly rolling off to the side as a loud crack sounded above him. He caught a glimpse of a section of the ceiling giving way and falling towards him as he rolled away and it clanged on the floor next to him so hard that it sent his denta rattling causing him to bounce more than roll away.

The sudden collapse had caused everyone to stop screaming and in that moment of silence he heard the whine of engines as they swooped down closer. He scrambled back to the collapsed ceiling section. He had a feeling he knew what was going to happen next. He needed to hide. He could see several bodies, some of younglings and some of caretakers, laying about limp in the debris. The energon that was slowly trickling away from their frames had given him and idea. It was a desperate bid for survival but he knew that he didn't have time to be picky.

Trying not to process too much on his actions, he smeared the energon of other younglings and caretakers on his chassis. He sent a silent pray to Primus for them as he shifted himself around and under some reinforcement beams so it looked like he had been caught in the collapse too. Energon was still trickling out from somewhere deeper in the pile, making it look like he had a fatal wound. He powered down as much of his systems as he could, adjusting the setting on his laser core every few klicks making it fluctuate abnormally. He let out a vent of exhaust, nervous that his quickly done hiding job wouldn't be enough, but hoping it was.

What happened next was something he would never forget. They killed them all. He laid there, faking his imminent deactivation and listened to the sounds as the rebels massacred everybot that had been on his floor. In his wing. He ended up shutting off his audios after barely a few klick into it. He kept his optics off line, distracting himself by going over his previous flight lesson and the tips that his instructor had given him. He thought of the thrill of flight. He wondered what it would be like to eventually be able to fly on his own over Vos with nothing but the stars above him and the city below him, sparkling together in harmony.

He lost track of how long he laid there, faking deactivation, but every time he tried to dredge up the courage to see if the coast was clear he would doubt that enough time had passed and go back to his internal turmoil. It felt like cycles went by but just over a breem and a half later, he on lined his audios again. He heard nothing so he slowly powered his optics back up and glanced around the room.

The devastation was immense causing the entire room that once looked so familiar to suddenly look alien and unforgiving. Where once there had been a room full of toys and comfort for him and the rest of his fight there was now nothing more than rubble, debris and bodies. He recognized some of them, others he'd never seen before, and some were missing entire parts of their frames. His engines cycled and he quickly turned away from what he was seeing, shuttering his optics and shivering. He had guessed that what was going to happen but he never thought it would be this graphic.

He forced himself to cycle several intakes of air before he began to wiggle his way out of his disguise. He made absolutely sure not turn to look towards what had once been the common room for his wing. He was sure that if he looked again he'd be unable to stay quiet and if any member of the rebel group -known as the Decepticons he remembered hearing one of the caretakers say- would surely come back if they heard a wailing youngling.

As he slowly began to free himself from underneath the debris he hid under, something above him shifted and the pressure on his back suddenly tripled in its weight. He wasn't able to prevent the squawk that escaped him and for a horrible moment he thought he was going to be crushed. After a couple astroseconds of nothing happening, Skydive realized that the debris had caught on something. He vented a shaky sigh of relief and tried to free himself.

He twisted, he turned, and he wiggled to the best of his abilities but no matter what he did Skydive could not free himself. He did what he could to keep himself calm, knowing that panicking would only make the situation worse, but no matter how much he told himself that he couldn't stop trembling. He tried to look up over his shoulder to see if he could figure out what was pinning him and maybe a way to free himself but all he could make out was a mismatched collection of debris that seemed to have no organization or pattern to it.

A desperate whine broke free of his vocalizer and he struggled to pull himself out. It didn't work just like before but that didn't stop him from struggling. He was scratching his servos, wings and arms as he fought free himself but none of that mattered. He had to get free. He hadn't done all this just to be pinned there until he deactivated. Another whine escaped him and he was astroseconds away from trying to thrash himself free when he heard a quiet, disbelieving voice echo loudly throughout the room.

"Is-is someone there?"

He knew he shouldn't say anything, it could just be a trick to tell the Decepticons where he was, but he couldn't stop from saying, "Please! Please get me out of here!" His voice was boarding on the edge of panic.

The response was immediate along with the sound of someone hurrying across the rubble strewn ground, stumbling occasionally in their haste. "Don't worry, I'm coming! You're going to be okay!"

In mere moments, a dirty white and red jetling came hurrying around pile of broken steel and shattered glass. The mech was no older than him judging by his size and looked vaguely familiar under the layers of dust and grim marring his chassis. He rushed forward and swiftly dropped to his knees, hands going up to the pile of rubble above Skydive. "Don't worry. I'll get you out here," the young mech said reassuringly and Skydive could hear the sounds of rocks being shifted back and forth and tumbling down the pile. "You're lucky you weren't crushed. How did this stuff fall on you and only pin you?"

Skydive could feel himself trembling, his intakes were working twice as fast as they were supposed to. He closed his optics and forced himself to calm down. Panicking would only be detrimental to their current situation. He had help, he wasn't alone anymore, and he had to calm down. "It didn't fall on me," Skydive was happy that his voice was only a little shaky. "I crawled underneath it to hide from them. I faked my deactivation." The shifting sound of rocks and rubble above him pause momentarily before continuing. "I neglected to ensure the pile wouldn't fall on me and trap me here."

"Judging by the sounds of it, you didn't have a lot time to do anything. It's a miracle you were able to get this far," the mech working to free him said. "I'm an Air Raid by the way. What is your designation?"

"Skydive," he heard about Air Raid before. He was in his wing but was getting into trouble so often that he was always on the disciplinary list. He had never seen Air Raid up close before. He had definitely heard about him and seen some of his most infamous pranks. Most were hard to miss. From what he had been able to tell from the rumors, Air Raid had a knack for pissing mechs off, getting into places he wasn't supposed to be, and had an impulsive streak an astromile long. While he was glad someone had found him, Skydive would have preferred someone other than his exact opposite.

"The showboat in flying class?" Air Raid asked uncertainly, pausing again before continuing to work on digging Skydive out.

"I'm not a showboat," Skydive said indignantly. Just because he studied his lessons and did his best during flying class did not make him any better than the other jetlings.

"Right, sure," Air Raid said his voice full of sarcasm before continuing. "Alright, I'm going to lift up this beam and you should be able to wriggle out from under it. Just do me a favor and move fast. I'm not sure how long I can lift this." Skydive nodded his helmet, while the pressure was still there it did feel lighter than before. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"

There was an unhealthy whine of gears at the same time as the pressure completely vanished off his back and Skydive was scrambling forward on his servos and knees. His wings became caught up on something but he managed to twist his way free causing metal to screech against metal that definitely lost him some paint. Air Raid's vents were working triple time as Skydive crawled forward. He had barely moved more than an astrofoot away before Air Raid dropped the girder he was holding up with a relieved exhausted. Skydive stood up and took several steps back from the pile, noticing that where he had been was twice the amount of rubble as before. He started trembling again as he realized how close he had been to actually deactivating.

"Well, now that you are free-" Air Raid began but stopped when he noticed Skydive's camouflage. "Oh Primus, please tell me that isn't yours." He said as he trotted over to Skydive and began looking over the energon staining Skydive's chassis, holding him still with a servo on Skydive shoulder. Skydive hadn't originally heard Air Raid –to focused on realizing just how stupid it had been to climbing underneath all that debris, despite the fact that it had been a life or death choice- and jumped slightly as Air Raid touched him. Air Raid made a comforting sound in the back of his vocalizer as he continued to look over Skydive. Before Skydive could tell him he wasn't injured, Air Raid looked him the optics. "This isn't yours, is it?" he asked in a low voice, his optics dimming slightly.

"No," Skydive said looking at several of the shattered frames sticking out of the debris. He stepped away from Air Raid, optics still locked on the bodies that had helped him even after their frames had gone gray. "Thank you," he said softly as he tipped his helmet to the offlined. He turned from the pile, back to his new companion, focusing on Air Raid and not on the deactivated and destruction around him. "Come on, we need to get as far away from this place as possible."

"Great idea, except where are we going to go?" Air Raid asked with a shrug of his shoulders. "We're not supposed to leave the youth center and what if there are others still trapped here?"

"Given your reputation, I find it hard to believe that you would obey that rule." Skydive said incredulously.

"Well it makes sense. I may not like rules but that doesn't mean I'll break them just to brag about it. I'm not stupid. Youth centers were built for a reason, and a very good reason at that. It's dangerous out there for younglings, especially with those off world slavers running around."

Skydive was a bit amazed, according to what he knew about Air Raid, he would have leapt at a chance to escape the youth center. Instead, he was hesitant and, judging by the way he had crossed his arms over his chest, it was going to take a very good reason to get him to leave. "Do you really think that matters now?" he asked calmly as he gestured to the shattered room around it. "The youth center is in ruins, our caretakers are dead and if the rebels find us there is a good chance we'll be offlined too. A civil war has been starting up, the caretakers were trying to keep it from us, but it seems that has come to us whether we wanted it too or not. If we don't leave now, we'll be offline too."

"And if we go out there we could be taken as slaves or offlined anyways," Air Raid had finally uncrossed his arms but had kept his defensive stance. "Besides, there may be more youngling trapped here, we should look for them."

"Do you really think any of them are still alive?" Skydive asked quietly. Air Raid shook his helmet and Skydive decided that it wasn't worth it. "I won't make you leave, Air Raid, but just understand that no one else was expecting this. I doubt anyone could have pieced together the fact the youth center was going to be attacked. It probably wasn't the only thing attacked either. There are no rescue crews here yet when they should have been here breems ago. Even if you found mechs still alive, how would you repair them? I can understand if you care for them but there is nothing for you to do but deactivate here with them." Skydive stepped further away from Air Raid, optics focused on the ground. "I'm leaving, I want you to come with me but I won't make you. Thank you for your help, please be careful."

Air Raid released a burst of exhaust and uncrossed his arms clearly frustrated, "You too. Don't deactivate after I dug you out. That would be a waste." He smiled cheekily at him but Skydive noticed the worried look in his optics or how he took a sight step towards him. It was obvious that Air Raid didn't want him to leave.

"I don't intend too," Skydive said as he turned and started to pick his way across the remains of the rec room, avoiding as much of the debris as he could. In his processor he had already laid out the most likely route to be passable and the less likely to have any rebels in it. Thinking of a way out of the building helped to keep him calm. If he thought about what could have possibly happened to the city or if he thought about what may still happened, Skydive was sure his systems would shut down in sheer terror.

He had just reached the door to head down towards the commissionaire when Skydive realized that the sound of Air Raid moving away from him had changed and now it sounded like the other mechling was heading towards him. He paused for a moment and listened only to confirm that Air Raid was indeed heading towards him. Patiently he waited and soon the other mech was standing in front of him with a sad look on his face that was completely out of the character he had been demonstrating. "What's wrong?"

Another deep exhaust left the other mech. "I just… realized," Air Raid began in a very quiet voice. "That counting you and the other three bodies in that pile I dug you out of, that I've accounted for all the mech in our wing." Blue wavering optics met Skydive's. "They're all deactivated, they offlined everyone. We're the only ones in Beta Wing still online."

Knowing what had most likely happened to his wing mates was one thing but to have their fate confirmed was an entire other. Skydive felt a shiver race through him and he covered his mouth with one servo pressed to it as he tried not to purge. A servo touched his shoulder lightly. "Yeah, that was my reaction too," Air Raid said softly. "Come on, hotshot, don't freak on me now. If we're going to stay alive then you got to keep your head on straight."

It was harder than he thought to pull himself back together, Air Raid just kept a servo on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "Why me?" he asked after a moment. Air Raid should have been just as capable of figuring out a way from them to stay alive. "Can't you do something?"

"Doing isn't so much the issue." Air Raid said fidgeting slightly as he finally let go of Skydive's shoulder. "I can do stuff, that's easy, but I've never been good at planning stuff. You seem like you have a much better understanding of everything anyways… so… what's the plan?"

Plan indeed, Skydive took a deep ventilation and stopped processing over the loss of his wing to focus better on how to keep its two remaining members online. He would have time to mourn properly later. He started by quickly separating priorities into two categories. Long term and short term goals were separated at high speed and, after a moment, he looked at Air Raid. "Alight, first thing we need to worry about is being discovered. How did you manage to escape the initial attack?"

Air Raid shrugged, "I was in solitary and got bored so I popped the screws on the ventilation cover and was exploring the vent system when the attack started."

"How much of it were you able to map?" Skydive said as he quickly began to process how likely it would be to use the vents to move about the compound more stealthily.

"Um… it wasn't so much mapping as much as it was, 'I wonder what's over here.'" The other flier said looking apologetic as he shrugged haphazardly.

"Still…" Skydive brought up the map that he had created of the compound during his first vorn there. If he could keep track of where they were using his maps as a reference, they could figure out where they were in the compound at all times. He glanced once at the door he was about to go through before making up his mind. The vents would be a lot safer, provided they didn't make any noise. "It would be safer to use the ventilation system instead of the halls. The rebels are most likely in their final frames and have armaments, it's doubtful that any of them can fit in there. If they are using a drone to check the system we should be able to overpower it before it can get word back to them. We just need to be quiet."

"Easy enough," Air Raid said brightening slightly. "I'll go first, I'm great at wrestling. I should be able to rip their little processors out!"

Skydive frowned, "That's not exactly what I meant."

"Don't worry, I'll rip them apart quietly."

"No, I meant we shouldn't be talking out loud. The noise of our voices will echo through the vent system and alert them to the fact that we are in there." Air Raid slowly started to nod his helmet. Skydive's processor whirled through various solutions before settling on the quickest and easiest one. "We'll use touch," he said after a moment. "If I grab you're ankle it means stop and don't start moving again until I let go. One tap means go left, two taps take a right and if I draw a line on your ped it means go straight. Every time you reach an intersection stop and wait for me to direct you. If you need to slow down I'll tug on your ped."

Air Raid sighed and rubbed at his helmet, "This would be so much easier if we had our comms unlocked."

"I know but it won't be until our next upgrade and we won't have another upgrade if we don't get moving."

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here," Air Raid gave him a smile which was fairly reassuring despite the strain around his optics. "Follow me," he said and started back across the room, staying low and moving fairly quietly for a mechling his size. Skydive was glad that Air Raid had enough sense not to bumble through the room and adopted the same movement pattern. The lack of height would make it harder to spot them and, without them making too much noise, it should also prevent them from attracting any unwanted attention.

Air Raid wound his way through the room, leading Skydive towards the vent he had first crawled into the remains of the Beta Wing rec room. He purposely took a path that went around some of the more graphically killed mechlings and caretakers. He didn't want Skydive to see them. He wished he hadn't. A tremble raced up his spinal strut and he quickly forced himself to stop processing about them. He had to stay focused. He had to keep himself and Skydive alive.

As he reached the wall vent and turned to watch Skydive as he came up beside him, Air Raid had made up his processor. He and Skydive would make it out of the youth center online. He would see to that, even if it eventually cost him his spark in the end. He would do everything he could to keep the remains of Beta Wing online. Skydive reached him and cocked his helmet to one side, "What's wrong?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Just making a promise to myself," he said off handedly before turning to the open vent. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Skydive whispered and Air Raid ducked down and started into the vent. Skydive tried not to think of the confining space as he followed the other mechling into the ventilation system. Instead he focused on what they should do next and where exactly they would go when they did escape.

And he tried not to think of what would happen if they were found.


	2. Chapter 2: Equipment Modifications

Disclaimer: If only they were mine.

* * *

The Destruction of Innocence

Equipment Modification

* * *

Silverbolt was really starting to dislike Slingshot.

The smaller mech was doing a good job at running point, warning Silverbolt several times about a mech walking past the hallway they were in by using simple hand commands, but he had the directional sense of a turbo rat. He kept leading them deeper into the facility instead of out of it and it was becoming increasingly apparent by the way he paused and looked about at every intersection that he had no idea of where he was going. Silverbolt knew that they had to stop and talk about their escape but, every time Silverbolt tried to get close to him, Slingshot would scurry on ahead and he never looked back to check on them. Silverbolt didn't dare yell at him that would alert everyone and their creator where they were. He huffed through his intakes, mindful to keep it quiet as he debated what to do.

"He's just trying to be helpful," came the timid voice of the jetling still hanging off his shoulder. Silverbolt glance back at the worried face of Fireflight who ducked his helmet in embarrassment. "Sorry."

Silverbolt smiled gently at him and reached up to pat his helmet a few times. "Don't be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong." He turned to look at Slingshot in time to see his ped vanish around a corner. "I just wish he would slow down. I don't think he knows where he's going and he keeps leading us deeper into the facility."

"He probably is. I don't think either of us left the common room except to get energon, go to the wash racks and go to the flight grounds."

Silverbolt nodded, they did both look young, even with their second frame upgrades. He wouldn't be surprised if their paint was still drying. "Neither of you have your comms installed?"

"Um… they're there. Just locked down." That made sense, they wouldn't get their full software upgrades for another vorn or two. Silverbolt paused by an open doorway that lead into an equally empty supply closet. The shelves had been torn down and items were strewn about the floor but there was no other way into the room. It was the perfect spot for them to pause and regroup.

"We'll wait here until Slingshot comes back," he decided not to say anything about if he came back. Slingshot was protective enough of Fireflight that Siverbolt was positive he would back track when he realized he wasn't being followed. He was more worried about what Slingshot would run into in the meantime.

"I'm sorry," Fireflight said as Silverbolt ducked into the storage room. "I wish there was something I could do to help." Sliverbolt set him on a clear patch of floor near the doorway before shifting over enough to peer up and down the hallway.

"Don't worry about it," Silverbolt said off handedly as he went over his creator's rifle. Windswept was going to be so mad at him for taking it and leaving his rooms. Silently he thanked him for teaching him about weaponry despite the fact that he had protested learning about it. "You're doing everything you can."

"Just wish I could still walk, then you wouldn't have to carry me around and I could actually help." Fireflight regard his legs with frown on his face and Silverbolt couldn't help but pat his helmet again.

"What happened to your legs?" he asked softly. He didn't see any signs of damage other than some scuffs marring the jetling's plating.

"I don't know," he admitted poking at one of his legs as if it would start working again at that simple prod. "There were so many explosions and so much dust I couldn't see anything. Slingshot pulled me off to the side but the floor was gone and we fell. He didn't have time to turn on his thruster before we hit. He landed on me and," he shrugged, somehow looking more downcast than he had a moment before. "My legs just wouldn't work."

"Sounds like something was disconnected in that fall," Silverbolt said. For a moment Fireflight looked hopeful and Silverbolt sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know anything about repairing other mechs. I wouldn't know how to fix it even if I knew what I was looking for."

Even though the sadness had returned, Fireflight had an amused smile on his faceplates. "Um… Try reconnecting it?"

Silverbolt was barely able to contain his laugh, causing it to be more of a snort of amusement as he choked it back. "That would make sense," his said less than a klick later becoming serious again. "But I don't know enough about the various systems to know what to reconnect and where it should connect too. I may do more damage."

Fireflight had deflated as Silverbolt spoke so he quickly added on, "However, I have been in training for communications. As long as both of you have communicators installed I should be able to connect a shortwave feature between the three of us. You and Slingshot could talk to each other." He didn't add on the fact that it would also be easier to discuss a plan of action and not have to wait for each other to realize they were missing again.

That seemed to perk the jetling up, "Can you?"

"Yeah, it's just a simple coding issue. You won't be able to broadcast to anyone else but the three of us should be able to talk to each other." He peaked out around the doorframe again and saw a yellow tinted visor glaring at him from around the corner of the hallway that Slingshot had ducked down. A second later a rather irate looking jetling rushed down the corridor at him. "And here comes the wayward jetling now."

Slingshot scrambled right up to Silverbolt, shoving him aside enough to slip into the room. He vented a sigh of relief seeing Fireflight leaning against the wall before rounding on Silverbolt. "Why the frag did you stop?! I thought something had happened to Fireflight when I noticed you weren't there."

Silverbolt raised an optical ridge when the jetling said nothing about worrying about him. Fireflight spoke up before saying anything. "Sorry Slingshot, but you've been going the wrong way and we couldn't catch up to you. Silverbolt said he's going to open are comm frequencies so we don't have to sit and wait for each other again. We'll be able to talk to each other!"

Slingshot cast an unconvinced look at Silverbolt. "Really? You can unlock our communicators?"

The way he emphasized 'you' made Silverbolt's optic twitch. He somehow had made the word sound both disbelieving and unconvinced at the same time. Ignoring the condensing sound to the jetling's voice, Silverbolt huffed. "I can't unlock your communicator's fully but I can open a shortwave communications between the three of us."

Slingshot crossed his arms and shifted his weight onto one of his legs, "Well, I guess that's better than nothing."

Again, Silverbolt had the urge to shake the attitude right out of the jetling but he just vented a huff of exhaust instead. Somehow he doubted that it would have worked anyway. "Come here and keep watch while I unlock Fireflight's comms."

Slingshot snorted but switched places with Silverbolt regardless. Silverbolt smiled at Fireflight reassuringly as he took his helmet in both servos and gently turned it to the side. He opened the access panel with a gentle click. "This is going to feel a little weird but just try and relax. I'll be done in a few klicks." Silverbolt then plugged a data cord into the side of the jetling helmet and went to work, tweaking his programming just enough to allow Fireflight to send and receive data from Silverbolt.

He gently unplugged from the smaller jet and sat back on his peds slightly. Fireflight shook his helmet and shuttered his optics several times before looking at Silverbolt. "Now what?" he asked, noticing that the larger mech's optics were still flickering as he moved about in his programs.

After another moment, Silverbolt came out of his daze and smiled at the other mech. "Now, try sending me a message. Activate you comms, there should be an icon in the lower left corner of your HUD."

Fireflight frowned as he did notice the series of Cybertroian characters spelling out the shorten word. It activated and vanished being replaced by Sliverbolt and Slingshot directly below it. "Those are who you can send and receive transmissions from. I'm going to send you a message now. Respond back to me using your comm. Don't worry, it will seem like second nature." Before Fireflight could ask or say anything, Silverbolt's name seemed to flicker on his HUD and then Silverbolt's voice seemed to whisper into his audio.

:Are you receiving this?:

:Yup!: Fireflight said nodding his helmet as his vocalizer automatically sub vocalized the response and sent the message back to Silverbolt. The sub processes moving to transmit the data flawlessly and with barely any processing power on Fireflight's part. :Wow! This is easier than I thought!:

Silverbolt couldn't help but smile at the jetling's enthusiasms. :It's a little more difficult the more lines you receive but for right now it should remain just as easy. Tell me if you get an error messages or it stops working.: Silverbolt then turned to Slingshot, "Come here, Slingshot. Fireflight, keep watch."

"Don't tell me what to do," hissed the smallest jet. He crossed his arms and glared at Silverbolt in offense. "You're not in charge of me."

"No I'm not," Silverbolt agreed before Fireflight could say anything. Something told Silverbolt that if he and Slingshot didn't come to terms now it was going to impossible for them to work together and survive this ordeal. "And I never claimed to be but if we are going to make it out of here still activated we need to work together. I know that there are going to be times I need your help just as much as you are going to need my help. Right now, I'm asking for your cooperation Slingshot. I can activate your comms, I know how to get us out of here and I'll carrying Fireflight. However, you are the only one who can scout ahead and warn us of danger. It would be beneficial to all of us to be able to talk and work together."

Slingshot was looking slightly uncomfortable but there was still some defiance in his stance.

"Please Slingshot. Just trust me for now," Silverbolt half begged, staring straight into the visor of the smaller jet.

None of them said anything for a long moment, the silence dragging out to a point where Silverbolt wondered if Slingshot was going to say or do anything at all. The only movement came from Fireflight who kept glancing between Sliverbolt and Slingshot with a frown on his faceplates, clearly wanting to say something but refraining for whatever unspoken reason.

Finally Slingshot shifted his weight from one ped to another and glanced off to the side, finding the floor more interesting than Silverbolt. "How do we know you won't leave us? Why are you going through all this just to help us?" he finally asked in a small voice and that was when Silverbolt realized why Slingshot was so defensive.

He had been abandoned.

Silverbolt could tell that Slingshot was honestly afraid of being left behind, again as far as he could tell. He didn't understand why someone's would just leave their sparklings to fend for themselves but if that was what happened to Slingshot, Silverbolt didn't want to think of what he went through in the city of Vos before he got to the youth center. He was lucky to arrive at all and not be killed or taken by slavers. Silverbolt had complained as a sparkling but there was no way he would ever trade his and Slingshot's pasts. Compared to Slingshot he had lived with a golden cube in his servo while Slingshot would have never felt safe or secure, flitting from shadow to shadow.

Silverbolt reached out slowly and gently grabbed the jetling's shoulder, causing Slingshot to jerk his helmet up and glare at him with an air of distrust. "Slingshot, there is nothing I can do or say to make you trust me. All I can do is hope my actions speak enough for me to convince you that I won't leave you," he tightened his grip on the plating under his servo but not enough to pinch any of the wiring underneath. "I won't lie when I say I hesitated before dropping down out of that vent to save you two but I also didn't have to move at all. I came to your aid because I wanted to and I knew that it was the right thing. If I went willingly into a fight to help you when I easily could have stayed hidden and safe, what makes you think I would leave you now?"

"You could leave us behind as a distraction," Slingshot mumbled still not looking Sliverbolt in the optics and he briefly wondered if that had also happened to Slingshot before.

"If I willing got into servo to servo combat with a trained killer what makes you think I won't do it again?" That just got a slight shrug from Slingshot and Silverbolt took a hold of his other shoulder sitting the rifle carefully on the floor. "Listen to me well Slingshot, even if you try to run away, I will come after you. You can trust me, I will never willingly let you get hurt or leave you behind. I only ask that you work with me and help me as much as you can." Silverbolt waited for a few klicks, hoping that his words soaked into the jetling's processor and databanks. "Will you help me Slingshot?"

The little jet let out a long exhaust from his vents before answering, "I still don't trust you yet." Before Silverbolt could say anything Slingshot continued, "Yet." A pale yellow visor tilted up to meet his optics and Silverbolt could see the two bright points in it as their optics met. "But I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. For now."

"And that's all I can ask for," Silverbolt said giving another squeeze to Slingshot's shoulders before letting him go. He reached over to Fireflight and helped him scoot over to the door frame while Slingshot looked up and down the corridor again. As soon as Fireflight was in place, Slingshot stepped over to Silverbolt without a word, head tilted to the side, waiting.

The connection was just as quick as it had been with Fireflight if not a tad bit quicker. Silverbolt had to do a few more moments of work as he set up the three way relay connection in a subsection of his databanks. The codes were hastily written but he had practiced enough with his classmates that he was confident that they would work for a while. Since it was only broadcasted between the three of them, using his own hardware as a sender and receiver, it was on an odd wavelength that no one would find actively scanning the higher usage frequencies. He wasn't sure how well it would work if they got too far apart but for now it was better than nothing.

Silverbolt talked Slingshot through the initial startup, unsurprised when Slingshot sent a brief message to Fireflight before he could ask them to test their connection to each other. He felt a slight hitch in his processing center. He really wasn't design to be supporting a connection like this but the required power to run a connection between the three of them was not large enough to over clock his processor and cause him to crash. If Slingshot tried to send an entire data pad worth of information through the link then Silverbolt would be worried.

"Alright," he said after he as sure all three of them could communicate with each other without difficulty. He went over the coding again as he continued, optics flickering again as he processed the information. "We'll continue on just like we were before. Slingshot, when you pause at an intersection I'll tell you which way to go. Fireflight, continue to keep an optic out behind us. If you do see something make sure to let both of us know."

Fireflight nodded his head eagerly while Slingshot just crossed his arms. Silverbolt looked over them and frowned. Fireflight he wouldn't have to worry about but he didn't like the idea of Slingshot being ahead of them that much. What if something happened to him and Sliverbolt couldn't keep his promise? The thought sent a chill through his back struts. With a deep sigh he twisted his hand and brought his Windswept's blaster out of his subspace.

He checked it over while saying, "Slingshot, do you know how to use one of these?"

That seemed to take both of them by surprise. "Um… ye-kinda," Slingshot finally managed to get out as Silverbolt, satisfied that the blaster would work as well as could, handed him the blaster. Slingshot took the offered weapon but Silverbolt didn't let go of the barrel right away and waited until they made optic contact again.

"This is a weapon Slingshot," he said ignoring how Slingshot's optics seemed to roll behind his visor. "It's also very loud. Don't use it unless your spark or our sparks are in danger. This is the blaster's safety switch in the locked," he flicked the switch causing the gun to let out a slight whine as it automatically calibrated itself. "And this is unlock. Wait for the charge to build the first time then go ahead and fire." He flicked the switch back before finally letting it go. The gun seemed huge compared to Slingshot. "It's going to have a pit of a kick to it but at least if something happens you'll be armed."

Slingshot turned the blaster over in his servos. He was going to have to carry and fire it with two servos instead of the one like it was designed for. "How many shots does it have?"

"Fifteen," Silverbolt said as he lifted Fireflight back up onto his shoulder. "Hopefully you won't need more but, if slag happens and you do, I have three more energy packs in my subspace."

Slingshot nodded and stepped over to the door, looking up and down the hallway while Silverbolt checked over the rifle. He wiped some dust off it that had accumulated from where it had rested next to him on the floor but other than that it was ready to fire. Silverbolt looked back up at the doorway expecting Slingshot to already be gone down the hallway only to see him crouched there watching him.

:Ready Silverbolt?: Slingshot asked over the comms.

Silverbolt managed to hide his surprise. :Ready. Fireflight?:

:Good to go.:

:Which way?: Slingshot asked as he looked away and scanned the hall again.

:Same way as before but at the first intersection take a left.:

:Gottcha, try and keep up.:

-Break-

Skydive wasn't sure how much more he was going to be able to take.

He had thought it was bad enough being buried underneath the ceiling but having willingly crawled into the vents -after coming up with the idea in the first place- was obviously a mistake for him. He was managing to keep the uncomfortable feeling of being boxed in from Air Raid but every now and then it would get the better of him and he would have to pause in his crawling and take a deep ventilation to help calm his racing systems.

Air Raid would stop crawling as well when he did this and wait patiently for Skydive to start moving again. In a way he was glad Air Raid was there and not leaving him behind. He knew that he would have been wandering about alone if Air Raid hadn't come over to him and that process made him more uncomfortable than the fact he was in a small space barely big enough for his shoulder plates to fit in.

Air Raid had paused at another intersection and Skydive briefly consulted his internal map of the youth center before tapping his ped twice. There was a storage room a short way down that hopefully would have some stock in it. Skydive knew that they were going to need all the supplies that they could carry. He had a bad feeling that the youth center hadn't been the only place attacked in Vos by the rebels.

He waited until he was flush with the grate before grabbing Air Raid's ped, causing the other jetling to stop. Carefully Skydive peered through the slats and examined the large store room below them. It looked untouched but even then Skydive waited several clicks, straining to hear any kind of movement from the room below.

Finally satisfied that the room was empty but still with as much caution as he could muster, Skydive popped the grate out with one servo and hissed as quietly as he could, "Follow me." He slid out of the ventilation shaft, setting the grate off to the side and looking over the room as Air Raid back up in the vents and joined him on the pile of crates he was perched on.

"Not that I don't mind getting out of that vent but what are we doing here?" Air Raid asked in a hushed voice. "I thought we were trying to get out of here."

"We are," Skydive said still scanning the room for movement. He saw Air Raid glance about the room out of the corner of his optic as if trying to see what he was looking at. "But I doubt there will be much help out there as we hope. We'll need supplies once we get out of here."

"You think those freaks attacked the whole city?" Air Raid asked in disbelief, his voice warbling slightly as he struggled to keep it as quiet as possible.

Skydive looked solemnly at Air Raid. "A youth center has been attacked yet no one has shown up to protect it or provide relief aid. Why would that be?"

Air Raid's optics dimmed, "Because they are occupied with something else."

Skydive nodded his helmet and took one last look about the storeroom. "Move as quickly and quietly as you can. Pile as much supplies as you can at the base of these crates. Grab anything you might think is useful and we'll sort it out in one breem. Look over the left side of the room, I'll take the right." Air Raid nodded and followed Skydive's example as they both climbed down the crates. "Energon and energon rations are our top priority."

"Gottcha, see you in one breem."

They split off in separate directions, Air Raid moving as quickly as he could, going from crate to crate. He peeked into several of them but other than pulling out several thermal sheets he didn't see anything of use in the single layer of crates scattered about the left side of the room. He climbed several crates high and peeked into a few near the top of the pile. That's where he found several crates of rations and a crate of goodies which he proceeded to carry several armloads down to the pile of sheets he left behind.

Using one of the blankets as a makeshift cart, Air Raid dragged his finding over to another pile of crates and climbed halfway up them. What he found inside nearly got him to cheer out loud. It was a crate full of repair kits. Why a youth center needed those he wasn't sure but he took several of the boxes down to his blanket cart. They were heavy and Air Raid almost tore the blanket he was using as a cart but he managed to tug the entire mass over to the agreed meeting area where he was met by a frowning Skydive.

"What?" he huffed as he pulled up next to his partner and let go of the edge of the blanket. "I was maximizing my time searching for helpful items. What did you bring?"

Skydive didn't answer, just stepped aside and Air Raid's optics widened as his jaw dropped. Behind Skydive, leaning against the crates were several energy rifles, two pulse rifles, what appeared to be a neutron cannon, several blasters as well as a couple hand pistols, and what appeared to be a several energon knives in varying lengths. Two of them were almost as long as Air Raid's arms. The guns' corresponding ammo and energy packs were stacked in piles next to them as they sat innocently in the corner.

"This is why the rebels attacked the youth center," Skydive said as he looked over what Air Raid had found. "They were using this as a storage facility for weapons and supplies."

"At least this explains the repair kits I found," Air Raid mumbled as he looked at Skydive. "Why would anyone do this?"

"The youth center is a rather convincing front. No mech would think of searching a youth center for military grade armaments and supplies." Skydive looked over at Air Raid who was visible trembling. "Are you alright?" he asked in a soft voice.

"They're all dead just because someone needed to hide weapons here?" he gulped in several intakes of air before turning to Skydive visible distraught. "They murdered all those jetlings just over some guns? All the caretakers? What did we do to get involved with this?!"

Skydive wasn't a big fan of personal contact but with Air Raid's voice steadily raising, he quickly stepped over to him, clutching his shoulders and gently tapping their helmets together. The response was immediate as Air Raid clutched his shoulders in return and pressed their helmets more firmly together. He was trembling less but his engines were still whirling. "Calm down," Skydive said after a moment. "We have to keep our helmets on straight if we're going to make it out of here."

Air Raid nodded his helmet but still clutched at Skydive as he stepped away. "Air Raid," Skydive said patiently as the jetling pressed their helmet together again. "We have to get moving."

That seemed to work and Air Raid reluctantly let go of Skydive, stepping back and looking over their pile of pilfered supplies. "H-How are we going to carry this all?" he said in a shaky voice.

"We'll split the supplies up and tuck them away in our subspaces," Skydive said as he quickly began sorting the weapons out into two separate piles.

Air Raid shuttered his optics and looked at Skydive like he was missing several transistors. "Subspaces? We don't have access to those yet."

"It's a simple hack," Skydive said shrugging, smirking slightly at the double take Air Raid gave him.

"How the slag did you hide that during your system checks?" Air Raid said in disbelief. Youngling were check constantly to ensure that there programming's firewalls and antiviruses were current and that there weren't any younglings messing around with their core programs. "They should have caught you for sure. Subspace access is their top priority right next to comm frequencies."

"Simply moving the codes to several separate locations in my databanks made them untraceable for the scans. It just looks like miscellaneous memory files," Skydive said with a shrug as he finished with separating the weaponry and ammo out. He then reached over and started separating the supplies on the thermal blanket. "Being one of the better behaved younglings also meant that they rarely paid a lot of attention to me."

Air Raid narrowed his optics and crossed his arms, recognizing the slight tease with a smile. "Yeah, okay, but I bet you didn't have half as much fun as I did."

"You seem to have an odd definition of the word fun," Skydive said straightening after he was done separating the supplies out. "Come here and I'll download the patch." Air Raid couldn't keep the bounce out of his step as he scurried over to Skydive's side. "You are way too excited to get this," Skydive mumbled as he removed a data transfer cable form his wrist, giving Air Raid an amused look.

Air Raid just smiled unrepentantly at Skydive as he turned his head to the side and allowed the other mech to uplink with him. Skydive sighed and connected them, quickly sending across the rather simple hack that he had created allowing him access to his subspace. "It works a little bit different than it should," Skydive said as they disconnected before he moved over to one pile and began to stash it in his subspace.

Air Raid didn't feel any different and other than a small message informing him he had access to his subspace there was nothing else. "You sure this is going to work? I mean, I don't feel any different."

"You shouldn't, everything is processed in your background data streams," Skydive said not looking away from his task. "The sub processes will activate and bring whatever you have or want in or out of your subspace. Just try it."

"If I get sucked into another dimension or trapped in my own subspace because of this I'm blaming you." Air Raid said as he picked up a blaster and, surprisingly, tucked it away in subspace without a hitch. There was a minuscule delay as the hidden program quickly aligned itself before it dispersed and vanished into his coding but other than that it seemed his subspace worked perfectly. "Hey, it works."

"Naturally," Skydive said with amusement clearly in his voice. "And it doesn't even look like the dimensional rift is active yet." Air Raid glared at him but still kept a cocky smile on his faceplates. "Now hurry up and get the rest of that stuff tucked away, we've been here way to long. We have to get moving again."

Air Raid hurried to tuck everything away in his subspaced, annoyed when he found he had to do it by individual items instead of in armloads. Skydive had climbed half way up the crates and was scanning the room again waiting for Air Raid to finish and climb up alongside him. Wordlessly they climbed up to the vent but that was where they froze as a loud bang came from behind them.

Skydive half shoved Air Raid into the vent before scrambling in himself as another bang rocked the room. He reached out and grabbed the vent's cover, quickly fitting the cover into place as the door to the store room was knocked down with a resounding clang. Skydive held the vent close as Air Raid reached past him and began bending down several clips to hold the cover in place.

"Tell Recoil we found another weapons storage," came a gruff voice as Skydive watched through the vents slats only to see several large mechs walked into the room. Skydive noticed each of them were wearing the purple symbol of the rebels' faction prominently on their chest plates and were armed to the denta. "Backdraft, secure the supplies."

Air Raid bent down the last clip and met Skydive's optics, jerking his helmet to the side, silently asking if they should get moving. Skydive nodded, letting go of the vent slowly to make sure that it was secured, before crawling after Air Raid, both taking pains in making as little noise as possible.

"Hey, Buckshot! I think I figured out where those three jetlings got those weapons." Both Skydive and Air Raid froze neither believing their audios for a moment. There were still other younglings online in the youth center? "Looks like someone was digging through the supplies."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. Recoil's making them wander right into a trap then we'll see how well those kids can play war." Craning his helmet around at a very awkward and uncomfortable looking angle, Air Raid looked back at Skydive beseechingly. He could barely see Skydive but all that mattered was that Skydive could see his mouth. 'Please?' his earlier feelings of helplessness while he was walking through their collapsed wing coming back to him as well as the fierce determination to help anymech he could.

Skydive frowned, if they went to help the other younglings, then the rebels would know about them too. Tactically it was unwise but the thought of letting a group of other younglings walk into a trap did not sit well with him. He bit his lip components, if they kept going their chances to escape were greatly improved, the rebels would think that other group were the only survivors and not scan the rest of the building. However, he doubted Air Raid would ever talk to him ever again and it wouldn't surprise him if Air Raid went to help regardless of what he said.

"Um… Buckshot, looks like those kids got a neutron cannon. Should we warn Recoil?"

There was a condescending puff out of a mech's intake. "He'll be fine, those kids will never make it across that courtyard with Recoil and them shooting down from the balcony. Even if they use the cannon to blow a hole in the roof, they won't get off the ground."

There was only one room in the entire youth center that looked even remotely close to what the rebel was describing. The sparkling central play room over in the south wing. He shoved his tactical thoughts from his processor as he quickly nodded to Air Raid before he could thank about it too much more. He caught the happy and excited flash in Air Raid's optics before the other mech turned away, crawling as quickly as possible through the vent without making any noise. Skydive touched his ped, sending them both towards the sparkling play room and hopefully to the aid of the other jetlings. The thought of what could happen if they didn't get there in time was all the encouragement Skydive needed to crawl faster.


	3. Chapter 3: Clearing the Runway

Disclaimer: If only they were mine.

Author's Note: Been awhile since I posted in this. Some minor editing has been done in the previous two chapters but nothing earth shattering. Just some misspelt words and verb usaged confusion.

* * *

The Destruction of Innocence

Clearing the Runway

* * *

:Primus, these guys are morons.:

:They probably think that we're just a bunch of scared mechlings.:

:Don't defend these fraggers!:

:Fireflight has a point Slingshot, they're underestimating us. And where did you learn such language?:

:Jealous?:

:Hardly.: Silverbolt barely managed to restraint himself from rolling his optics at Slingshot's remark. He could feel Fireflight shaking as he tried not to laugh at their brief exchange. Despite the situation they found themselves in, it was kind of obvious what the Deception rebels were trying to do. They were trying to herd them into the sparkling play room and were barely taking the effort to conceal themselves.

Fireflight had noticed they were being followed shortly after they had left the store room but the mech following them had remained mostly hidden. He would only occasionally appear to Fireflight then duck back into hiding again. Silverbolt had noticed him only once, but when he turned to face him fully the mech slipped back behind the corner.

That was when Slingshot started reporting their way was being blocked by several heavily armed rebels. Silverbolt had tried to direct him around them through several other corridors only from the same mechs to appear again and again. The only way that was continuously open to them was the path leading down to the playroom.

:So… what are we going to do?: Fireflight asked as Silverbolt slowed down to come up alongside Slingshot who had paused to wait for them. They were just down the hall from the large room. Its doors closed ominously before them.

Silverbolt glanced over his shoulder at the hall they had just come down. There were two mechs holding their ground, peeking around the corners they were hiding behind. :I assume there are two 'cons in each of the other halls?: he asked glancing down each hall in turn. Slingshot hadn't even answered before he saw another mech peek around a corner.

:Yeah, six altogether.: Slingshot said shifting uneasily. :Think we can rush them?:

:No, they're too heavily armed. We try and approach them there is a good chance they'll just shoot us.: Silverbolt said as he glanced at the doors again. He didn't like the idea of going in there. The main floor of the sparkling playroom was just a wide open expanse with a second level hallway looking down on the floor. Typically, there was a reinforced see through plexipolymer that allowed mechs and femmes to look down at the sparklings playing but after the repeated explosions he doubted if that plexipolymer was still intact. They were being forced onto open ground.

He glanced back at the mechs surrounding them, shifting a little closer to Slingshot. :They're going to have mechs up on the second level hall, able to shot down at us and these six out here to rush us from behind. They're going to have a serious advantage over us.:

:And more weapons.: Slingshot added, he servos nervously clutching at the blaster in his grip. :I don't think we're going to last long in a firefight.:

:I have an idea…: Fireflight said nervously. :It will at least buy us some cover if nothing else.:

:What?: Silverbolt noticed that the rebels kept peeking around the corners at them, glaring. :We're going to have to start moving again before they get too much more impatient.: He wouldn't put it past the mechs to just rush them out here.

:I can over load one of the extra ammo packs you have and cause it to smoke. It should blind their visual sensors enough so that they won't be able to target us.:

:But we'll lose ammo pack.: Slingshot protested.

Silverbolt glanced at the six mechs again, nudging Slingshot towards the door. :Depending on how many mechs are in there, it won't matter how much ammo we have if we don't have any cover.: He reached into his subspace and handed four ammo packs back to Fireflight. :Do what you can. Slingshot, go slow down the corridor. We'll give you as much time as possible, Fireflight.: Fireflight took the packs with one servo. Silverbolt reached behind his body awkwardly and placed his arm below Fireflight's inoperable hips, tilting himself forward enough so the smaller mech didn't have to hold on anymore.

Fireflight let go and Silverbolt felt him beginning to fumble with the ammo packs against his back plates. Silverbolt kept nudging at Slingshot as the smaller flyer kept pausing and glaring back at the mechs who were following them. He could tell that Slingshot wanted to try and take them despite the odds. :Don't,: he encouraged. :Move towards the doors.:

:If we go in there-:

:We have more room to maneuver, we'll have better cover if Fireflight can turn those ammo packs into smoke bombs-:

:Finishing the last one now.:

:And, overall, we'll have a better chance of surviving this.:

:Which still isn't very good odds.:

:Are you pessimistic, or do you just prefer arguing with me?: Silverbolt said exasperated. :You always seem to point out the worst that could happen.:

:Just stating the facts.: Came the growled response and Silverbolt forced his servo to relax around the gun. :I'm a realist.:

They reached the door and Slingshot slipped around Silverbolt who was watching the mechs in the hall. :The astrosecond we open this door, if there are any mechs in there, they're going to start shooting.: Slingshot said as he pretended to struggle with the door controls, acting like they were locked down to buy them another kilk or two. :What's the plan? Do we even have a plan?:

:Yes.: Silverbolt did not let any of his fear leak into his vocalizer. The idea that he was going to be shot at was making his spark pulse race. :I'm most likely going to be the first target they aim for so I'll act as a distraction. Fireflight, I'm going to get you off to one side of the room and leave the rifle with you.:

:But how will you fight?: Asked Fireflight not even bothering to hide his fear as he trembled against Silverbolt's back.

:I have the knife.: Silverbolt shifted uneasily glancing over and hissing at Slingshot to hurry up to keep the act up. :The second that door opens, toss one of those smoke bombs in there. Slingshot, take a bomb with you and get up on that walkway, take out as many mechs as you can.:

:Go along the left wall.: Slingshot said as he began cussing at the panel he was 'fighting' with. :There is a couch over there that you can put 'Flight behind.:

:But I want to help!:

:You'll have the rifle, go ahead and use it. Make sure you brace yourself well, it's got a powerful kick.: Sliverbolt shifted again, still trying to not think about what was about to happen. This was going to be a fight, not a sneak attack like he had been in back in Windswept's rooms but an actual fight. He sucked at sparring back in his self-defense training course. His instructor was always getting after him for being too gentle with his sparring partner. He really didn't want to hurt anyone in his class but this wasn't a class. This was real.

He could deactivate in the next few kliks.

:We're running out of time.: he said, a bit of the anxiety finally creeping into his voice. The mechs in the halls were clearly getting impatient at Slingshot's apparent inability to open the doors. They kept glaring around the corner and he had no doubt that they were communicating with the mech or mechs on the other side of the doors.

:S-smoke bombs are ready. Just… Don't use any of your thermal imaging. The heat dissipating off the packs will bleed into the smoke and make scans impossible. Use optical and audio only. It'll be more difficult to process but this way your HUDs won't be cluttered with scanning errors. Hopefully this will give us enough of an edge.:

:Okay, shall we do this?:

It didn't escape Silverbolt's notice how Fireflight's voice trembled as much as his plating was or how calm Slingshot seemed to be. It was like Slingshot had been shot at before and it made Sliverbolt wonder again just what had happened to the younger mech. He had been abandoned. What else had happened to him in his short life?

He aborted that subprocess before it made him become distracted. He needed to be ready for this. Slingshot gave a triumphant noise from the panel and slid behind Silverbolt. He felt Fireflight shift as he handed a modified pack off and got ready to throw another into the room. He took a deep ventilation trying to steady himself for what was going to happen, hoping he had enough training to just do stuff without processing it. If he hesitated, he would end up deactivated.

:Stay in touch through the comms, try not to shoot each other.:

:O-okay.:

:Gottcha.:

Another deep ventilation, he tried to ignore how he was shaking just as bad as Fireflight.

:Activate the door, Slingshot.:

The door slid open obediently.

He felt Fireflight throw the pack in as he jumped backwards through the doors and slightly to the left to get behind the door frame. "Well, loo-" they had planned on talking to them? Silverbolt hadn't even thought they were going to try that. It really didn't matter what the mech talking had been about to say because the ammo pack exploded, filling the room almost instantly with a thick pinkish black smoke that felt like a wall of heat as it rolled over his chassis.

"What the fragging pit!?" The mech yelled as Sliverbolt ducked off to the side. The smoke was hard to see through but he heeded Fireflight's warning and resisted the urge to scan the room. "Frag it all! I don't care anymore! Shot them!"

Had he really going to offer them something?

The amount of weapons fire made it sound like an ion storm had started up in the room, the swirling cloud of smoke only adding to the affect. He stumbled into the couch before the saw it. It was little more than a thin outline in the cloud, barely noticeable. Quickly he slung Fireflight off his back and behind the couch dropping the gun in his servos. :Becareful.: He told the youngling as he moved away, back in the direction of the door, pulling the knife from his subspace. He could make out swirls in the smoke as mechs moved about.

:You too 'Bolt.: Fireflight said over the comms, sounding scared but there was a hint of determination in his voice. :I'll try and give you cover.:

:Thanks.: He stayed low, sneaking as best he could up behind one of the mechs that had been following them in the hallway. The Decepticon was turning this way and that as he walked through the smoke, leading with his gun and growling under his intakes. Silverbolt paused for a moment, steadying himself, before lunging forward and twisting. He ducked down along the mech's left side and stabbed upward through a side seam in his armor.

The mech hollowed, jerking in pain, and sending a spray of bullets randomly into the cloud of smoke. Mechs started yelling and Silverbolt felt a burst of pain along his arm as one of the mechs turned around and shot back at them. He pulled his knife free and rolled along the ground, listening to the dull thumps of two mechs. One in the direction of the one he had stabbed and another in the direction he had been firing in. Two down. Hopefully. Four and however many more to go.

The gunfire was starting to increase in tempo. He recognized the brief crackle before each shot of Windswept's rifle and the sizzle that his blaster made. Both Fireflight and Slingshot were still fighting, that was reassuring, he jumped back to his peds and stabbed a mech through the back of his neck. He realized at the last second he was staring at a mech who was turning towards him with his weapon raised.

Silverbolt pulled on the body half between them and felt the chassis in his grip jerk as the rebel took the shot for him. He shoved the body forward, hearing the shooter get tangled up briefly in the body and cursing him soundly. Silverbolt lunged forward, one servo clutching around the mech's blaster to keep it turned away from him. He stabbed his servo forward, ramming his digits into the mech's neck, curling them around various wires and tubes, only to pull his servo away tearing through the mech's neck components. He crouched down over the body as it fell, one servo clutching the barrel of the blaster the other dripping with fluids.

Oh dear Primus… what had he just done?

:Primus, Silverbolt! You should have told me you were changing the plan! What was that whole thing about communications?! Fine, whatever, I'll deal with this!:

Slingshot's voice leaked over his comms but Silverbolt couldn't find the voice. His optics were glued to his servo, dripping in the rapidly cooling fluids of another mech. He had torn out that mech's throat. A trembled wracked his frame as he continued to stare.

:Silverbolt? Hey, are you okay? Where are you?:

He had stabbed two mechs, killing both of them, and used a third as a shield but those paled in comparison to what he had just done. He knew he had been given extra hydraulic rams in his servos and arms to make him stronger than most. The calipers had already relayed the information on how little of his overall strength he had used. He hadn't realized how strong he was until now. He had only using thirty eight percent of his overall strength and that had allowed him to rip out another mech's throat with ease.

:Silverbolt? Hey, Silverbolt! Primus… Slingshot? Where is he?:

:Don't know.:

:Silverbolt?! Silverbolt, answer me!:

:Calm down, he's still relaying our comms. He's gotta be online.:

:Really?:

:Yeah, he's fine.:

:But where is he!:

:Don't worry, I'll find him. Just keep your helmet down!:

Windswept. He had his frame designer work these into his new frame. He remembered his creator and the designer arguing over the modifications. It was why he was so big. The extra hydraulics, the electrostatic charger, and reinforced wing design were all Windswept's idea. He wanted them in Silverbolt's frame from the beginning and fought the frame designer and engineer every step of the way to get the incorporated. They had said he didn't need military modifications at such a young age.

:Primus! Where the frag are you already?!"

Windswept had known about the coming civil war. All those extra hours in self-defense training and making Silverbolt go to the rifle range with him. His creator had been setting him up to be able to fight. He had made sure that Silverbolt had known where the rifle and blaster were, he had never even tried to hide them. The extra rations he had kept in his quarters for no real reason. Windswept had made him into a fighter without him even realizing it. He had turned him into a killer.

Oh Primus… He had been turned into a murderer.

:SILVERBOLT!:

Fireflight's terrified shriek over the comms jolted Silverbolt out of his process in time to see the bore of a gun staring back at him. He blinked at it and glanced back along the barrel to the Decepticon standing over him with a nasty grin on his face. There was an absence of weapons fire and the smoke was mostly dispersed. He could easily see Fireflight who was raising the rifle from where he was flopped behind the couch but Silverbolt knew it was too late. The Decepticon was already pulling the trigger.

The mech's servo holding the gun suddenly exploded, the sudden flash of light all but shorting out Silverbolt's optics. The mech's scream nearly drowned out the sound of the mangled gun hitting the floor and the sound of thrusters rocketing through the air. Slingshot slammed into his chest plate, knocking him out of what would have been the line of fire if the mech had been able to pull the trigger. Silverbolt hit the ground hard, Slingshot sprawled over his chest plates. His arms wrapped around the smaller mech on reflex even as Slingshot twisted on top of him, turning back around, lifting the blaster still clutched in his servo.

He didn't need to do anything as another jetling suddenly landed on the Decepticon's shoulders, stabbing a long energon knife through the back of his neck, the tip bursting out of the bottom of the mech's chest plate. The body wobbled and fell over as the new youngling easily hoping off to the side so that he was standing where the other mech had been. He looked over the two of them concerned. "Are you two alright?" he asked tilting his helmet to one side as he frowned, completely ignoring the twitching body next to him.

"Who are you?" Slingshot hissed, shoving Silverbolt's arms away as he stood up next to him. He kept his blaster trained on the white and gray jetling who quirked a ridge at him but didn't say anything. "Where did you come from?"

"I'm Air Raid," the newly named mech said. Silverbolt stood slowly, wobbling a little. He pointedly didn't look at his servo, he needed to pull himself together. His brief lapse had almost gotten himself deactivated. "I snuck out of the vents and helped to take care of the guys shooting down at you."

"That was you?" Slingshot glanced quickly at Silverbolt. "I thought you went up there. Were you down here this whole time?"

"Y-Yeah," his voice sounded reedy and thin even his own audio's. He turned to Air Raid, "Thank you for your help."

Air Raid smiled at him, optics roving over his frame. "Hey, no problem. Skydive helped too, he's up there still."

"Skydive?" Silverbolt recognized that designation as a new prodigy that had been brought up as a possible transfer candidate into the upper level classes. He would be skipping two intermediate levels. There was only one other mech to ever do that in the history of the school, a seeker model mech designated as Starscream.

"Yeah, probably has a gun pointing at you," he said shrugging and nodding vaguely towards Slingshot. "Because you're still pointing yours at me."

"Slingshot, put the gun down," Silverbolt said tiredly. Slingshot looked like he was going to snap something but stopped when Silverbolt nearly fell over as the hydraulics in his knees rapidly depressurized. Slingshot turned and caught his arm, grunting as Silverbolt weight rested on him. Silverbolt tried to pull away and was surprised as Slingshot continued to hold on.

"Okay, sit down before you fall down and let me look you over real quick. You are not fine so don't even say that." Air Raid said sounding brisk and professional as he stepped forward and took his other arm, pulling it lightly to try and coax Silverbolt into sitting down.

"You know emergency repair?" Silverbolt asked as he relented, kneeling as both of them forced him down.

"Yeah, I got bored in solitary all the time so I convinced a caretaker to give me reading material. Jet frame design and construction always fascinated me and she was able to get me datapads full of that stuff." He reached for Silverbolt's energon covered servo, optics attracted by dull pink covering it and his wrist.

Silverbolt snatched it away as if his touch was toxic, nearly overbalancing Slingshot who was holding onto his forearm still. "It's fine," he said hurriedly, ignoring the frown on Air Raid's faceplates. "Besides, Fireflight needs your help more than I do. His legs are disconnected." He tried to mimic the look Fireflight had given him when he had silently begged Silverbolt to help what felt like vorns ago now. "If you know as much as you claim to you should be able to help him a lot more than me." Because Silverbolt knew that there was nothing physically wrong with him, it was all in his processor and spark.

His attempt at the Fireflight's look must have failed, because Air Raid looked decidedly unimpressed. "Would you just let me see your servo already? I'm not going to hurt you. I can actually help if you give me a chance."

"Air Raid," a soft but serious voice came from above them, causing Slingshot to jolt and curse lightly under his intakes as he scrambled to aim the blaster. Silverbolt looked up into the stern faceplates of a streamlined jetling that was a shade of dark blue. He was crouching down on the landing above them casually cradling a large rifle in his servos. He was covered in dry energon which gave him a gorier appearance than any youngling should be able to pull off. "He has a point, mobility is more important than a damaged servo. See if you can help the other youngling."

"But he's leaking!" Air Raid said gesturing at Silverbolt in annoyance. "I should at least patch the lines."

"There's no energon dribbling on the floor," Skydive pointed out as he hopped off the ledge. The single engine on his back whined slightly as it came online and slowed his descent. He landed lightly next to them. "The rest of the Decepticons forces will arrive shortly when they fail to raise any of the mechs in this room. We need to be out of here by then."

Air Raid let out a huff from his exhaust, rolling his optics at the ceiling. "Fine." He pointed a digit at Silverbolt. "No leaking off line on me," he ordered before starting for the couch which Fireflight was peeking around.

Slingshot took a step to follow Air Raid but paused as he looked back at Skydive obviously torn over where he should go. The protectiveness made Silverbolt's quivering spark calm somewhat. For all his bravo and anger, it was apparent that Slingshot did care for him even if it was deeply buried. "I'll be all right, Slingshot." He said softly, the smaller flier pinning him with a glare as if he knew what he was processing. "Go keep an optic on Fireflight."

Slingshot looked at Skydive for a moment before looking back at Silverbolt. "Go on," Silverbolt said jerking his helmet to where Air Raid was knelling next to Fireflight, helping him to stretch out on the floor so he could look over his back plates and struts more easily. Slingshot leveled one more glare at Skydive who looked impassively back at him. His silent warning delivered, Slingshot hurried over to where the other two jetlings were.

"Try not to think about it," Skydive said after Slingshot was out of audio range, pitching his voice low so only Silverbolt could hear him.

"Excuse me?" Silverbolt said looking at the mech standing next to him not sure if he heard him right.

"What we are being forced to do to survive this," Skydive said looking around the room. "Don't think about it. I saw you freeze after you killed him," he gesture at one of the bodies that Silverbolt pointedly didn't look at. "You can't think about what you are doing or you won't get out of here online."

Silverbolt huffed an exhaust and stood up, dwarfing the smaller mech next to him. "I am not a murderer even if that is what I was designed to be," he admitted to the mech next to him. "I just," he looked over to where Slingshot and Air Raid were kneeling next to Fireflight. Air Raid had a panel open on his back plates and was looking over it with great interest. "I couldn't leave them alone."

"I don't think you're a murderer. Just think of how you met them, it was probably just as traumatic as how Air Raid and I met. Where would they be if you hadn't helped them? I know I would have deactivated if Air Raid hadn't arrived."

"They would have been deactivated," Silverbolt said frowning as Slingshot crossed his arms and snapped something at Air Raid who just smiled in response while Fireflight laughed at them. "And I would have still been in hiding."

"I don't think you are a murderer then," Skydive said making Silverbolt look back at him, their optics meeting. "You have been defending yourself and those two. That does not make you a murderer. It makes you a defender. A protector. You are just doing what needs to be done to stay online."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Silverbolt demanded gesturing to the room with a flip of his servo. "We deactivated them."

"They attacked the youth center and slaughtered everyone they came across. My wing has been decimated; only myself and Air Raid are still online. I've shot and o-offlined five mechs." His vocalize hitched slightly and Silverbolt saw his lip components tremble. It was the first real emotion he had seen on the smaller flyer's faceplates. He took a moment before speaking with firm resolve, "And I would do it again to protect Air Raid, Fireflight, Slingshot, and even you. If I think about it, I'm horrified at what I've done but as long as I know all of you are safe, I can move on and forget about what I've done to help keep you all online."

"You shot the gun out of his servo?" he asked.

"Yes, to prevent him from offlining you." He let go of the gun with one servo and gently clasped Silverbolt's arm. "Look at them. They are still younglings, barely in their third built frames. While I am the same age, I process and act more like I'm in my secondary frame such as you are. The two of us are the closest thing those three have to adult figures anymore. It's up to us to keep our helmet's on and processor working to keep them as safe as possible."

"I barely even know what to do and you think I can help lead them out of this mess?" Silverbolt shook his helmet and sighed again. "You don't know me very well."

"I may not know you very well and I'm still trying to piece together what to do myself but I do know that you are the oldest and have the most online experience out of all of us. It may not be what to do or how we are going to pull through this but your age as opposed to ours will have those three always referring to you on what to do. You may not think you are the leader of this little turborat team we've become but they see you as it like I do."

"It doesn't mean I'm always going to do the right thing'" Silverbolt protested.

"I never said it will be right, but they will listen to you," Skydive said squeezing the plating in his servo. "You're all we have right now and we are all you have. We need to stay together and we need to work together if we are going to have a chance. If any of that is going to succeed we need a mech to point us in the right direction. You."

"You seem to have a better grasp of what's going on, why aren't you taking command?" Sliverbolt said looking over the mech next to him.

Skydive sighed and let go of Silverbolt's arm. "I know my weaknesses. I do not do well in social situations or listening to my spark. While I can make decisions, I don't trust myself to listen to my spark over my processor. I don't have enough empathy. When we… when we found out about the three of you being led into a trap, my first reaction was to leave you as a distraction for the rebels while we slipped away. If I hadn't figured that Air Raid would come to help regardless of what I said, I would have left the three of you to deactivate." There was a feeble exhaust, as if his own admission upset him more than Silverbolt.

"We all have empathy," Silverbolt said after a moment, trying not to think of what would have happened if Air Raid and Skydive had escaped instead of coming to help. He returned the gentle grip on the jetling's arm, offering his own comfort. "You just need to learn how to listen to yours."

Skydive's lip components quirked up in a small smile. "This is what I am talking about. You're going to be a great leader."

"…" Silverbolt honestly didn't know what to say to that. He hadn't even thought about leading Slingshot and Fireflight anywhere. He was just trying to get them somewhere safe.

"I not saying that you take all the responsibility for any decisions," Skydive said misreading the look. "I can help you. I am a wealth of knowledge, some of it military history. I can give you what you need to make a decision that will be beneficial to us all."

"… I still don't think I'm as cut out for this as you are trying to play me up as," Silverbolt said. "But let's say I agree with you for now and we'll discuss this later. We've been here way to long."

"Agreed, we should vacate the immediate area as soon as Air Raid has finished diagnosing and possibly fixing Fireflight's ailment."

They both turned back to the other three jetlings only to stop in absolute shock. Fireflight was standing up on his own peds and his giggles floated through the room, steadily increasing in volume. What was so shocking was that he was bumbling his way through a series of movements, mimicking Air Raid who was going through the moves to the sparkling dance flawlessly. Slingshot was standing off to the side, his arms still crossed and his lip components moved. Sliverbolt couldn't hear was he was saying but it appeared to be somewhere along the lines of, "You both look like idiots." Whatever he said it only caused Air Raid to laugh.

"Unbelievable," Silverbolt said softly, Skydive nodding in agreement. Shaking his helmet he said loud enough for the other jetlings to hear him, even over Fireflight's giggles, "If you three are done, we should get going now."

Fireflight jumped slightly as if he had forgotten what was going on and quickly hurried towards Silverbolt and Skydive. He stopped after three steps and turned back to grab his rifle. Slingshot slouched over to them with a sour look on his faceplates and Air Raid continued to dance as he sashayed over to them. Which caused Slingshot to glare at him and Fireflight to giggle some more.

"What are you doing?" Skydive said to Air Raid who just shrugged and spun about on one ped, continuing his dancing as he came up to them.

"Dancing?" he said with an amused grin on his face. He struck a pose and then finally stopped. "Testing to make sure Fireflight was fully recovered from some disconnected circuit packs and wires." He waved his servo dismissively, "Besides, you two were talking leadership stuff and didn't need us interrupting you every handful of kilks with stupid questions."

Silverbolt winced when Slingshot sneered at him. Judging by how much Slingshot griped about Silverbolt trying to get him somewhere safe, this was going to escalate quickly into an argument that they didn't have time for. "Please not now, Slingshot, we need to get moving before anymore Decepticons get here."

"If I may make a suggestion?" Skydive said quickly, "We should leave through a side entrance or maintenance door if possible. They would be less likely to be guarded then the main entrance."

"Sounds good," Silverbolt's optics rolled over the smaller flyers around him feeling distinctly out of place. He had a feeling that being a leader was something that he would never really get use too. "Stay together, everyone keep a wingman with them. Slingshot, Air Raid you're together," he didn't miss the hostile glare Slingshot first leveled on him and then turned towards Air Raid who just smiled back unperturbed. "Please try to work together," he added with a sigh before looking at the other two jetlings. "Fireflight follow Skydive's lead."

"Gottcha 'Bolt," Fireflight chirped, biting at his lip components trying not to laugh at something behind him. Silverbolt didn't want to look but the smirk on Skydive's faceplates peek his curiosity enough that Silverbolt glanced over his shoulder.

Air Raid's faceplates were going through an impressive series of movements as he made face after face at Slingshot who was beginning to look slightly disturbed at the proceedings. Silverbolt was a bit disturbed as well. He didn't even know that lip components could be flipped completely back on themselves like that. "Air Raid, enough please," Skydive said, his normally calm voice wavering slightly with mirth. "We need to get going."

"Right!" The excitable youngling said as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Slingshot slowly shook his helmet, still staring at Air Raid as if he was slightly insane. For once Silverbolt found himself silently agreeing with him. "We'll beat the transistors out of the next mech that even tries to cross us!"

"No," both Silverbolt and Skydive said simultaneously. After sharing a look between them, only Silverbolt continued, "We shouldn't go looking for fights. From now on we need to avoid them at all costs."

"He's right," Skydive said ignoring the over exaggerated pout on Air Raid's faceplates. His servo swept out to one side, gesturing to the room, "It may not seem it but we were very lucky to have won this fight. These mechs had us out numbered, out gunned and their skill sets were high above our own. It was only because we were able to surprise them with both our numbers and several modified ammo packs that we were able to win. Even then, we came very close to losing one if not more of us. If we can avoid fighting, we must."

"So what are we supposed to do if someone attacks us?" Slingshot said, finally seeming to come out of his stupor. "Wait for them to peg us to the nearest wall?"

"Of course, not," Silverbolt said glaring back at the smaller flyer. "I said 'looking for fights,' if someone engages us that is another matter entirely."

"You mess with one aerial, you mess with us all," Fireflight sounded almost melancholy when he said this. Silverbolt nodded his helmet and opened his mouth only to close them as Fireflight handed Windswept's rifle back over to him. "You should have this back."

Silverbolt looked from the rifle and then back at Fireflight prepared to refuse taking it back. He would rather be defenseless rather than Fireflight be without a weapon. Air Raid suddenly bounced between them, twisting a servo and bring a rifle out of subspace. Silverbolt raised an optical ridge, he had access to his subspace? "Taa-Daa! No need to fear about lack of weapons, I've got plenty!"

Fireflight took what appeared to be a military grade assault rifle from Air Raid before stepping closer to Silverbolt, still holding the rifle up to him. "See, I'm armed and this rifle means a lot more to you than me."

Silvebolt heaved a sigh and took the rifle back, servos tracing over it quickly checking it just like Windswept had taught him too. His earlier thoughts came back for a moment to haunt him as he turned the gun over in his servos, looking at it from all angles. Did Windswept really believe that all this was going to happen to him? He flicked the safety off the rifle and listened as the electrostatic charge built up in the rifle's chamber as he settled it in his servos. It felt far more familiar than he really wanted to process but maybe that was just due to how often Windswept took him down to the firing range to make him practice. He finally tore his optics away from it and looked at Fireflight. "Thank you," he whispered causing Fireflight to beam happily at him.

"Alright, let's go," Silverbolt said looking over the four younglings that he had found himself suddenly in charge of. Slingshot sent Air Raid as glare as the other jetling half bounced past him holding a pair of energon knives so that the dull edge of their blades ran back along his arms. Air Raid didn't seem to notice the glare and Silverbolt watch as Slingshot ran to get ahead of the mech only to have Air Raid increase his own speed as if they were racing. Slingshot literally hissed at him.

Silverbolt sighed and wondered if he should have asked Skydive to accompany Slingshot.

Silverbolt hurried after the two, glancing back over his shoulder briefly at Skydive and Fireflight. Neither of them seemed to be having an issue with each other. Skydive was correcting Fireflight's grip on the rifle he carried which won him another one of Fireflight's beaming smiles. Knowing that the two of them were somewhat getting along helped to ease Silverbolt's nerves somewhat.

As for the other two…

Slingshot had finally reached out and grabbed Air Raid's shoulder armor, pulling the taller youngling to a stop at the doors that they had first entered the sparkling play room through. It was then that Silverbolt realized that Slingshot was still the shortest youngling in the group as both Air Raid and Skydive were both a helmet higher than he was. :Where to?: Slingshot asked over his comms, growling something at Air Raid that had the taller jetling shrug a shoulder at.

:Head left. There should be an emergency escape down that hallway.: At least he was pretty sure it was. If he was remembering the layout of the youth center and the surrounding area correctly, it would put them out on Lostanva Street. There was an Enforcer Station just down that street from the youth center. He tried not to dwell on why the Enforcer's hadn't arrived at the youth center yet given their close proximity.

Despite the two jetlings jockeying for who was in the lead in front of him, the halls seemed too quiet compared to the firefight they had just gone through. His tanks churned as he listened to the quiet. It was way too quiet. Something was wrong. A subtle shake, like the one that went through the youth center when he was in Windswept's room, went through the building causing a few lights to flicker and some dust fall out of crags along the ceiling. "That's not good," Skydive whispered as another shake went through the building. Silverbolt looked away from the ceiling and at the other jetlings, noticing how they had all stopped and were staring up at the ceiling too. Slingshot looked met his optics just as a third, slightly more powerful shake went through the building.

It was getting ready to collapse.

"RUN!" Silverbolt yelled, pointing forward before turning and reaching back towards Skydive and Fireflight. However, Skydive was already moving, having a firm hold on Fireflight's arm as he dragged the other jetling along behind him. Silverbolt stepped aside letting them pass so that he could bring up the rear. Slingshot and Air Raid were scrambling around the bend in the hall. :Slingshot! The door should be about ten mechnometers down on your left!:

:We're already there but its locked!: For a second, panic swelled up in Silverbolt's spark but he quickly forced it back down. Panicking wasn't going to help them in this situation. The gunshot that went off caused his spark to leap into his oral cavity only to have his fears alleviated when Slingshot growled. :Fraggit, even a concentrated blast didn't open it.:

Silverbolt didn't quite understand what Slingshot meant until he rounded the bend just after Skydive and Fireflight. By the looks of the scorch marks on the door, the jetling had tried to shoot down the door. Air Raid was shaking his helmet at him, "That's not going to work, you need a bigger gun." He turned towards Skydive, "Get out th-"

"Unadvisable, the structure has taken too much damage as is," Fireflight pulled out of his grip and ran towards the door lock as Silverbolt joined them. "It won't be able to take the resulting concussive force of the-"

A sharp crack caused all of them to jump and turn toward the sound in time to see Fireflight pull the butt of his rifle out of the door controls. He propped the rifle up against the wall as he tore the rest of the panel free and pulled out a servo full of wires. "Fireflight, are you hot wiring the door?" Air Raid asked as he gaped.

Instead of answering, Fireflight pressed two of the ripped wires together and the door slide open obediently. Fireflight twisted the two ends of the wire together to keep the door open. "Get moving!" he said as another shudder ran through the building. This time it was accompanied with a strange rumbling that was steadily growing louder.

Silverbolt shoved at Air Raid and Skydive as Slingshot grabbed Fireflight who was snatching his rifle off the floor. The four younglings staggered through the maintenance way as Silverbolt turned to glance over his shoulder armor at the hallway. The lights flickered and went out but not before he saw a swirl of dust come rocketing out of the corridor they had just come from.

"This one too!" Slingshot snapped in aggravation as they reached the end of the short hallway. Fireflight was lunging for the door's control panel but Silverbolt shouldered past them and slammed his servo right into the door, buckling it outward with a screech of metal. The light shined through the seam along the door's track was dimmed as Silverbolt jammed his servo through the gap and tore the door almost half open in one tug. His engines growled as he shoved the door forward, ripping it out of the tracks. Internally he trembled at what his strength could do. Even if he reminded himself that the door was fairly brittle, relying more on the locks to keep someone from breaching them, it didn't help.

Why had Windswept modified him like this?

With the door still clutched in his servo Silverbolt launched himself out onto the street, stumbling slightly with the inertia of force. The other four younglings scampered after him, a wave of dust following them as the wall crumbled behind them, falling into the best home that they knew. Silverbolt looked over them, ensuring that everyone was okay as he flung the door aside.

He didn't hear it clang and it wasn't until then he realized why. A high pitch whine was flooding the air, steadily growing louder as it echoed off the buildings around them. He saw the other jetlings turn towards the noise with him as they looked at what was coming down the street. Three seekers were rocking down the street but instead of calming him, Silverbolt felt his spark clench in fear.

Volleys of rockets were being launched by the jets, impacting the sides of the buildings lining the street. Debris launched themselves away from their former structures as if they were trying to jump away and save themselves. Silverbolt hunched down as the seekers rocketed overhead, covering his helmet with his servos as the debris fell from above him. The whine of their engines' faded, Silverbolt's spark clenched in fear at the sound that replaced it.

A creaking groan was coming from the damaged buildings around them as their internal structures began to collapse.

"Oh fraggin' pit," Slingshot muttered even though no one else heard him over the steadily increasing roar that filled their audios.


	4. Chapter 4: Launch Failure

Disclaimer: If only they were mine.

* * *

The Destruction of Innocence

Launch Failure

* * *

"INCOMING!" Air Raid yelled with a quick glance up.

"RUN!" Silverbolt yelled. He didn't have to look up to know that the building on the opposite side of the street was collapsing. He could hear the reinforce structure give with loud squeals of shearing metal and the crunching grinding noise that came from the other various pieces that the building was made up as they failed to hold up the added weight. A plume of dust was billowing out of the lower levels to fill the street around them. However, it was the roar of displace air as it rushed ahead of the mass falling down that filled him with a fear that he had never experienced before.

They didn't have time to transform and fly. The air displacement alone would have made take off a struggle and, even if they could generate any lift with the downward force, they would have had the remains of a building landing on them. As one all five of them tore off down the street, jumping over the debris that had already landed and scrambling around the ones too large to jump.

He could barely keep track of them as he fled but even Silverbolt couldn't say he was actively looking for them to ensure that they escaped, too preoccupied with his own life as he run. He caught brief glimpses of them as he went. Skydive was practically dragging Fireflight along and Slingshot and Air Raid seemed to be in a flat out ped race with each other. Still they were moving and the fleeting views he managed to make out was enough to bolster his own resolve as he moved.

Luck seemed to be on their side. Silverbolt risked a glance over his shoulder and saw that the far corner of the building had given away first causing it to fall away from them. He thanked Primus under his breath as he went, the younger aerials were still running ahead of him and he found himself thanking Primus again when he saw that none of them were injured.

Skydive was slowing slightly, looking around, making a head count and it was as he saw Silverbolt coming running out of the remains of the dust cloud that something exploded behind him. The explosion caused him to stumble and the servo he was holding yanked sharply on his, pulling him to the ground. The air was knocking right out of his intakes as he hit the ground awkwardly on his right shoulder, broken fragments of the panels that had been on the street raining down on him. He laid there in a daze, everything sounding and feeling like it was coming from light years away. Someone was shaking him, calling his designation but that was all unimportant. All he cared about right then was the sounds of his intakes heaving as they struggled to regulate and pull air into his systems, reminding him that he was still online.

A pair of servos suddenly grabbed his left shoulder and right hip, lifting him all but effortlessly and tossing him over a dust covered shoulder. He grabbed at the back armor of the mech now carrying him more on reflex than because of any conscious process on his part. Off to the side he could just make out Fireflight running alongside the mech holding to him. The part of his processor that was coming out of its stall was relieved that the younger jetling was uninjured.

The mech carrying him –he was assuming it was Silverbolt- suddenly took a sharp left almost causing him to roll right off his shoulder. The servos pinning his legs down shifted, catching him and holding him up as the larger mech jumped over something and scrambled over what sounded like broken plexipolymer before jumping something else. He was swung off the mech's shoulder and lowered gently but swiftly to the ground behind what looked like a counter of some kind. Air Raid's face filled his view, "Skydive! Are yo-"

"HIT THE DECK!" Slingshot suddenly yelled and Skydive found himself jumped on by the other four aerials right as the ground rocked beneath him. The sound from the explosion deafened his audios. He could see past the mass of frames over him, watching as shattered plexipolymer and chunks of the building came flying over the counter they were hiding behind.

His audios were ringing as the building creaked over them threateningly for a moment before settling again. There were several quick bursts of gunfire that echoed through the building along with the whine of engines being pushed to and past their limits as aerials and seekers raced overhead. Skydive sighed, his intakes hitching slightly, as he silently cursed the caretakers in the youth center. If they had only prepared for this rather than hiding the jetlings and younglings from it, maybe more of them would be alive right now. With the collapse of the building, odds were the five of them were the only survivors.

Silverbolt was the first to move off the pile, having been the last one to jump over the younger mechs, covering them with his larger frame. He released a vent of relief that the building hadn't collapsed on them and sent a quick message to Slingshot, thanking him for locating this relatively in tacked shop as they had run down the street. For now, the structure was holding, providing them cover for a few moments to gather their wits together.

"What the frag is going on?!" Slingshot yelled over the noise that echoed through the store. Silverbolt noticed that, despite the fact there was a frown on his face and an angry look in his optics, the smaller mech was trembling against the counter he was leaning against. The older mech could make out the sound of his fuel pump hammering from where he sat on the opposite side of the other three jetlings.

Silverbolt never got a chance to answer before Skydive's shaky voice spoke up from where he was still being laid on by a terrified Fireflight. Air Raid was sitting up next to him, leaning over his helmet, no doubt doing what he could to check the other flier over. "War," was all he said. "A civil war."

"What?" Fireflight said finally lifting his helmet off Skydive's chassis. "There was a war brewing?" he asked as Air Raid shooed him off of Skydive and helped him to sit up with his back against the counter.

"Yeah," Silverbolt vented as he peeked over the counter at the destroyed street. "The upper classes were told about it because we would have found out eventually through the social media sites. We were forbidden to tell anyone in the lower classes because the staff didn't want to frighten anyone unnecessarily. No one expected it to escalate so quickly or that the youth center would be attacked like this."

"But it was and now we're up an energon river without an aquabot!" Slingshot yelled again. His distress was visible beginning to show on his faceplates as he trembled even harder against the counter. As if knowing he needed something, Fireflight scrambled over to him and wrapped his arms around the smaller mech, burying his faceplates into Slingshot's chassis. The other jetling clutched at the larger frame which seemed to help center himself as he trembling eased and the throbbing of his fuel pump slowed.

"I know," Silverbolt said with a deep sigh, shuttering his optics as he though briefly of everything that had lead up to the attack. He wanted to mourn all those that had been lost but knew that now was not the time for that. They needed to focus on the task at servo if they were going to get out of the war zone in one piece. "But we can complain about this situation and mourn over our lost later. Right now we need to focus on the situation at servo and get out of the war zone."

"Agreed," Skydive said, still sounding a bit shaky. The vacant look to his optics was slowly bleeding out, leaving the normal calculated gaze that the prodigy had when they had first met. It was a relief to see him returning to his senses even if it was a bit slower than Silverbolt wanted it to be. The sheer terror that he had felt when the missile had struck only a few paces in front of Skydive was still fresh in his processor. Fireflight had been saved from the brunt of the explosion because Skydive was in front of him. The younger mech had pulled him down even as he had collapsed and had been struggling to wake him up when Silverbolt had reached them and scooped him up. The relief of his servos clutching at the seams of his back armor had been dizzying to say the least. "We're at an extreme disadvantage. The sooner we can escape the city the better."

"So what?" Air Raid asked leaning back from Skidive, having done everything he could for the other youngling which hadn't really been much. "Should we head for the shuttle port?"

Skydive and Silverbolt shook their helmets and started speaking at the same time. After the first few jumbled words, they both paused and looked at each other. Silverbolt just nodded to the smaller mech and Skydive hesitated for another moment before continuing. "All air traffic is going to be grounded due to the conflict. The shuttle port is going to be closed down." The entire group quieted, holding their intakes as several engines raced overhead, wincing at the sound of an explosion and the high pitched whine of an engine giving out.

They all knew that they weren't going to be flying anywhere.

"What about the tram station?" Fireflight asked in a small voice after the sounds faded away into the constant backdrop of gunfire and distant explosions. "Will it still be running?"

"Possibly," Silverbolt said, already trying to figure out what would be the safest and fastest way for the five of them to reach the station.

"Every other noncombatant mech will probably be trying to get there too," Skydive said as he rolled his shoulder, wincing as several of the gears complained about the movement. "It's going to be a mad house."

"Mad or not, it might be the best way to get out of the city," Silverbolt said as he peaked over the counter and out onto the street. It was still relatively quiet out there. The main conflict seemed to be on the opposite side of the city from them, closer to the shuttle port. Hopefully that meant that the tram station would be open with no surprises waiting there for them.

"And how are we going to use it?" Slingshot grunted in annoyance. "None of us have any creds and they wouldn't let a bunch of younglings get on the tram by themselves."

"Maybe if we show them how adorable we are they'll make an exception?" Air Raid said with a shrug of his shoulders and a somewhat calm expression on his face as if they weren't in the middle of a war zone but were hanging out in a dorm room. Everyone in their group gave him a look which made him shutter his optics in surprise, "What? It could happen."

"Considering what's happening, the tram might be open for evacuation purposes and they won't be charging passage," Skydive pointed out.

"And even if they did," Silverbolt added. "I have my charger cred stub with me. The limit is high enough on it that I should be able to purchase a ticket for all of us to Nexus."

Slingshot snorted and shook his helmet, "They still won't let you buy a ticket and get on the tram without a guardian's approval. You aren't old enough to try and pull off that stunt."

Silverbolt seethed quietly to himself and took a moment to resist smacking Slingshot in the helmet. The smallest jetling did have a point. "I'll have the ticket master call my sparker. By now he has no doubt heard about this and will be willing to lie to get us all out of the war zone." At least he was fairly sure that Starglider would help the other jetlings. If he didn't than Silverbolt knew that he could always refuse to leave without them. He met Slingshot's optics, silently daring the other mech to find a hole in his plan. After a moment, Slingshot looked away, grunting again and shifting his hold on Fireflight slightly.

"Cool," Air Raid said seeming to not notice the silent challenges that were going between the smallest and largest members of their group. "Now that we have that settled, how about we get going before another missile hits the building and drops it on our helmets?"

Skydive nodded his helmet in agreement and moved away from the counter, turning and peering up over it. He heard the others move to look with him as he slowly scanned the destroyed store they had taken refuge in. The street beyond the ruin storefront seemed desert but he knew from some of the datapads he had read that looks could be deceiving. "We shouldn't move through the streets. It's too open. We'll be spotted."

"Um… so how are we supposed to get to the-"

"We can use the access tunnels. As long as they haven't collapsed, we should be able to move through them until we get close to the station. I know one that pops out about two blocks from there." Slingshot showed no remorse in cutting Air Raid off.

Skydive gave him a startled look, "Younglings aren't supposed to be down in there, how do you know how to navigate them?"

Silverbolt felt his optics dim. The only younglings that knew how to navigate the access tunnels were usually runaway or orphans. They were called tunnel brats and were known for snitching food and supplies from vendors to sell to mechs down in the gutters. They were go betweens, usually they were forced into some situation by a guttermech that would use and abuse them to their spark's content. When the younglings got too big to fit easily in the tunnels they ended up as guttermechs themselves. At least now Silverbolt was positive that Slingshot had lived a very hard life before coming to the youth center. He had probably been caught by Enforces and brought in to be cared for.

He put a servo on Skydive's shoulder, silently quieting his curiosity for the moment. He was smart enough that Silverbolt knew Skydive was already piecing the clues together. "Later Skydive," he said before turning his attention to Slingshot. "Are you sure we can get there using the access tunnels?"

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't think it was possible," he snapped back irritated before calming somewhat. "There are going to be some tight squeezes for you and we're going to have to hope that all the explosions have collapsed the tunnels but yeah, I know how we can get there."

"Lead the way then," Silverbolt said removing his servo from Skydive's shoulder and bring Windswept's rifle out of subspace. "Be ready for anything and stay together like before. Stay low to the ground and behind cover as much as possible. Let's try not to attract any unnecessary attention," he didn't mean to be looking at Air Raid when he said that last line but the other youngling smiled back at him unrepentantly.

"And me without my neon accent lights," he said chuckling to himself as he brought out the blades he had been running around with before in the youth center.

Silverbolt watched as the other younglings checked over their respective weapons, Fireflight needing some help from Air Raid to prime the charge for his rifle. When they were ready, he nodded his helmet towards the store front before hoping over the counter himself and cautiously approaching the window. He tucked himself behind the door jamb of the shop's door. While he scanned the street he was dimly aware of the other younglings moving up to huddled down behind the window display case. Slingshot didn't stay there, however. The smallest mech hoped up onto the low shelf that made up the display case floor and moved up to the window frame. He propped himself up in the corner of it farthest from Silverbolt and leaned around it to look up and down the street like Silverbolt was.

:All clear.: The text from Slingshot's comm caught Silverbolt momentarily by surprise. He had forgotten all about unlocking the comm systems for the other two. He should have unlocked Skydive's and Air Raid's comms while they were stopped. It was an over sight on his part that he would have to rectify later. He didn't like the calm that seemed to fill the street despite the sounds of fighting in the distance.

:Same here.: He transmitted to Slingshot before transmitting to both Slingshot and Fireflight. :Stay close to your respective wingmen, only use the comms to communicate out on the street. I don't like how quite it is.:

Fireflight had visible jolted at the message but Slingshot just seemed to glower out at the street. Silverbolt assumed that he was supposed to be the intended recipient of that look but decided to dwell on it later. If Slingshot had a problem with his wingman they could argue about it when they were safer. :Move out.: He said, gesturing with a wave of his servo for them to get moving. :Slingshot, you lead.:

The smallest flyer didn't even bother to look back and see if Air Raid was following, which he was, practically on the other jetling's heels. Skydive and Fireflight followed after them, moving in tandem with each other, Skydive only just in front of Fireflight. With another glance around the immediate area to see if anything was reacting to the other mechlings moving, Silverbolt brought up the rear. He felt like there was a large target on his back, however, and spent equal amounts of time looking over his shoulder and walking backwards as they moved.

And moved they did. Slingshot ran from cover to cover, barely pausing long enough to give their surroundings more than a cursory glance before moving again. Air Raid found he was having trouble keeping up with the smaller mech who seemed to dart about like a cyber finch fluttering about the park. He had to pay more attention to where the smaller mech was rather than his surroundings. He could only hope that the other jetlings with him were keeping a better optic on things than he was.

Skydive followed the lithe form of Air Raid doggedly, while he constantly scanned the ground before them. Occasionally, he had to flare out his right flight stabilizer and shift to his right side to stay in contact with Fireflight. Before having left the store, Fireflight had told him that he was going to keep his optics on the sky and buildings above them as long as he could keep in contact with him so he could stay running in a straight line. It had surprised Skydive that the other youngling had thought of it, not because he had thought that Fireflight was a little slow, but because he had honestly thought that the jetling was as naive as he had been acting. The sight of him hotwiring the door to get them out of the youth center came back to him, Fireflight obviously knew more than he was letting on.

The further they went down the street the more paranoid that Silverbolt became. There was no telling who could be possibly watching them. There were too many angles where someone could look down and see them or just fly overhead and noticing them. It was too open. Even with Fireflight scanning the area over them it wasn't enough for him to feel comfortable. They were exposed despite how everyone kept to cover as they moved. They had to get out of the open. Now.

Slingshot darted down an alley with his quirky, dagger wielding shadow following along behind him. :Aw frag,: came the hiss over the comm line that nearly caused Silverbolt's spark to leap out of his chassis.

:What's wrong?!: he demanded, wincing slightly as he realized how harsh that had sounded.

:The maintenance hatch into the access tunnels is covered with debris.: Slingshot sent back in a voice that sounded almost monotone and he did not respond to Silverbolt's apparent ire at all like he had thought he would. Something was wrong. :We can't get in.:

Silverbolt didn't want to believe it and an uncomfortable feeling filled him as Slingshot spoke. There was definitely something wrong. He sped up but it seemed to take forever to reach the alley and finally joined the other mechlings there. When saw the devastation for himself, he slowed to a standstill next to the other jetlings. He now understood why Slingshot had sounded so hollow.

A hover bus had crash landed in the alley, lying inconveniently over the maintenance hatch. Even though he noticed that, Silverbolt's optics were glued to the bus itself. The top half of the bus had been completely sheered away and was missing. All the windows had been shattered and the entire front nose cone had been dented into the driver and passenger space beyond. He took a sharp intake as his optics went towards the back of the bus.

He knew what the definition for the word carnage was but actually seeing it was entirely different. The mechs and femmes that had been in the bus were in pieces that seemed to almost be scattered about by a mad sparkling. Their bodies were in the alley and the remains of the bus, sometimes without any disgusting marks left. The air was filled with the smell of burnt metal and energon. He felt like he was going to be sick.

Surprisingly it was Fireflight to move first. He took several cautious steps towards the downed bus before turning to look back at them. "We have to help them." He said in a trembling voice as his hands nervously clutched at his gun. "There's got to be something that we can do?"

There was enough conviction in his tone that told Silverbolt that Fireflight suspected what the answer to his question was going to be but he just didn't want to believe it. Silverbolt heaved a sigh but before he could dash his hopes, Air Raid stepped up patted Fireflight's shoulder before knocking their helmets together. "Sorry kid," was all he said. "There nothing we can do for them now."

"Primus, be with them," Skydive whispered as Fireflight let out a keen of sadness. Slingshot moved up next to him allowing the larger jetling to bury his face in his shoulder without any complaint. "War is a terrible thing."

"Amen," Silverbolt said sending his own pray to Primus for the dead and for their safety. "Slingshot," he had to take a moment to compose himself as his vocalizer crackled slightly with the grief he was trying to hide. He had to be strong for the younger mechs. "Is there another way into the access tunnels?"

"Yeah," Slingshot was petting the back of Fireflight's helmet, the other mech keening against his shoulder still. "But it's several blocks that way."

He had gestured with the blaster he still carried and Silverbolt knew that it wasn't going to work. The next nearest tunnel was heading closer to where the fighting seemed to be the heaviest and further away from the tram station. He looked at Skydive who was giving him a sad look. Neither of them liked the idea of going closer to the battle zone but crossing half the city on the streets didn't sound like a good idea either.

"Hey! I think we can still get down there!"

Air Raid's sudden exclamation drew everyone's attention to him. Even Fireflight -with a few soft whimpers still escaping him- lifted his head from Slingshot's shoulder to see what he was going on about. Silverbolt watched as the soot covered form began shoving at debris near the edge of the right flight stabilizer of the hover bus.

Silverbolt moved to see what he found, giving Fireflight's shoulder a brief squeeze as he passed. Air Raid hurriedly shoved more debris off to one side as he approached, working at a fevered pace. "See?!" he said excitedly as he pushed a large panel out of the way. It landed with a dull clang almost drowning out what he said next. "I think that's part of the access tunnel. The section around the hatch may have caved in but its open enough here to get down there!"

Silverbolt crouched down next to the hole that Air Raid had partially uncovered. He was right. It looked like the pavement had cracked all the way through and had left a rather convenient opening to the access tunnel below. He sifted forward on his knees and shoved under plate away, exposing the hole further. He could only see one problem with this enterance.

"It's too small," Skydive voiced his thought as Silverbolt continued to gaze at the edges around the crack. Experimentally trying to break more away with the butt of his rifle as Skydive continued, "Silverbolt won't be able to fit through that opening."

Air Raid deflated at those words before bouncing right back, "Alright, let's go through the streets then. Maybe we can find another way down there."

"And what? Risked get shot at," Slingshot growled. Fireflight seemed to pull away from him in shock for a moment despite the arm around his shoulders holding him still. "It's too dangerous to move around on the streets for a long period of time. Someone is going to see us."

While Slingshot's words stung a bit, he was right. Skydive was in the process of saying something when Silverbolt stood up and turned to them. "He's right Skydive," he gestured towards the hole absent mindedly. "Everyone get in."

Air Raid and Skydive both began to protest at the same time and Fireflight was suddenly hugging him with enough force that he swore his plating was creaking from the strain of holding together. The only one who seemed unaffected by his command was Slingshot but Silverbolt could see that the optics behind his visor had dimmed slightly and the tilt of his helmet angled them towards the ground. He was hiding his grief and fear behind a cloud of disinterest. Despite he knew that the reaction would be unfavorable, Silverbolt found himself wanting to give Slingshot a hug.

"Enough," Silverbolt said reaching down with a servo and gently pushing Fireflight away from him even as the younger jetling whimpered and resisted. "I know you guys don't like it but it will be safer for you four to go through the tunnels. I'll meet you at the shop across the street from the tram station."

"It'll be safer if we stay together," Skydive quickly cut in.

"Yeah! We can take on anything as long as we stick together," Air Raid said taking a step forward and Silverbolt wondered if he was going to be hug by Air Raid too. He was having enough of a time getting Fireflight to let go of him.

"We're trying to avoid fights," Silverbolt said patiently as he finally pushed Fireflight away from him and resolutely did not look at his faceplates. He didn't want to leave them either and those pleading optics would destroy what little resolve he had left. "Besides, I can move faster alone and it will be harder to detect one jetling as opposed to five."

"But what if something happens to you and you need us?" Fireflight said taking a step forward, a servo come up as if to grab him despite the fact that they were too far apart from each other for physical contact. "How will we find you?"

If something happened to him he didn't want them trying to come back for him. It was a scary thought, but even scarier was the thought of the other four dying trying to reach him. He gave Skydive a knowing look, the other jetling's optics widened slightly before giving a barely perceivable nod. He thanked Skydive silently as he turned back to the flustered jetling in front of him, his vocalizer cracking again as he withstood the pleading look he was receiving. "Remember, we are linked through a subspace comm frequency. I'll call if I need help," he ignored the slight cough that came from Slingshot's direction. "And tell you where I am."

Fireflight keened as he said in a small, sad voice, "Promise?"

"I promise," and he hoped with every ounce of his spark that Fireflight would never know that he was lying. "Slingshot," the mechling finally made optic contact with him, obviously still trying to mask his feelings behind a veil of disinterest. "Take them to the tram station through the access tunnels. Try and stay away from any areas where there seems to be heavy fighting." Slingshot gave him a nod as he turned to Skydive. "Skydive, keep everyone out of trouble." He caught a frown on Slingshot's face from the corner of his optics but it was gone as soon as he turned.

Everyone then seemed to stand there, looking at each other, unsure of what to do. Silverbolt wanted them to go but he found it impossible to force his vocalize to say anything. He didn't want to try and go it alone but he didn't want the rest of them to be put in danger.

Slingshot heaved a sigh and stomped over to the hole, giving Silverbolt a brief, hurtful look as he passed. It suddenly dawned on him, the little jetling felt like he was being abandoned again. Silverbolt didn't get a chance to say anything before he crawled into the hole leading with his blaster. After a moment he hollered up, "All clear."

"Be careful, 'Bolt," Air Raid said with a strained smile on his faceplates as he started for the hole. "Don't bite off more than you can do chew on your own."

A pair of arms wrapped around his waist and squeezed hard as Fireflight stifled another sob into his plating. "Keep your head down," Skydive said as Air Raid vanished below ground after Slingshot. "Try not to draw attention to yourself and do not try flying. You'll be spotted in an instant."

Silverbolt already knew that but hearing it reminded him of the first couple of failed landings he had ever done. Crashing hurt more than he ever wanted to admit, both in his pride and physically, but he could imagine that they paled in comparison to being shot down. He settled for responding by nodding his helmet. Skydive heaved a sigh before he too started underground.

Silverbolt looked back down to a sad pair of optics. "Call us if you need us," Fireflight was trying to sound forceful but there was enough of a questioning tone to it to show he didn't know if it was his place to make such demands.

"I already told you I prom-"

"You were lying," the arms around him tightened. "Do you want me to come with you?"

He did but he couldn't imagine what would happen if he got hurt because of him. "No, go with the others. You'll be safer."

"But what about you? Will you be safe alone?"

He really didn't want to be alone, the fear of being alone was beginning to grow, filling his tank and spark with uneasiness, but the more of them there were the harder it would be to stay hidden. "Fireflight, please I know what you are trying to do but I would rather that you go with the others and help them." He gently pushed Fireflight's arms away and took him by the shoulders. "I can move faster without having to worry about you and the others getting into trouble." He repeated as he turned the other jet around and gave him a slight push towards the hole. "Now go on. The longer we stay put the higher the risk that someone will see us."

Fireflight looked at him for one long moment before swooping in and stealing one more hug before climbing into the hole to join the others. Silverbolt crouched down and set his rifle off to the side so he could pull the plate that had originally covered the hole back over it. Before he covered it completely, he looked down at the small group of jetlings. "Be careful, guys," he said quietly. "Don't do anything rash."

"You too, Silverbolt," Skydive piped up. "We'll meet you at the tram station."

Silverbolt nodded his head in acknowledgement and moved to recover the hole only to catch the look of fear and betrayal that suddenly raced across Slingshot's face. It was gone just as soon as it had arrived and he had to replay the image in his head just to be sure that he had seen it but it was there. Reviewing his visual feed had caused him to pause moving the plate and he sighed as he forced himself to move again. He set the plate back over the hole and sent a quick comm only to Slingshot as he reached for his rifle.

:I'll be back, Slingshot. Don't worry. I won't abandon you four.:

The response was immediate and filled with such venom that Silverbolt physically winced at it. :Stop lying and making promises you can't keep.:

Silverbolt sighed again and stood, checking over his gun and starting for the far entrance to the alley. His flight stabilizers kept twitching as the nervous paranoia from before returned but this time even more powerful without the others around him. The fear from his tank and spark seemed to be rushing outwards throughout his entire body. He took a shaky ventilation, trying to calm himself down as he left the alley.

He hoped that he would be able to prove to Slingshot that he was wrong.

-Break-

It was taking everything that Skydive had to not scream at the top of his vocalizer and go running for the nearest hatch to escape the access tunnels. Like most aerials, he did not like being trapped in a confined space but it was fast becoming apparent that being buried alive back at the youth center and now following Slingshot through the access tunnels was having a negative effect on both his spark and processor. When he let his thoughts begin to wander, all he could think of was what would happen if the ceiling would suddenly let go and fell on them. He shivered and readjusted the grip on rifle trying to redirect his thought process on the here and now and not on what could possible happen.

They were moving at a rather fast clip as Slingshot led them through the seemingly endless twists and turns of the tunnel system they were currently in. How the smallest flier knew how to navigate them was something that Skydive decided he didn't want to question at the moment and was instead grateful that he could navigate them in the first place. He didn't want to think of where they could be if Slingshot hadn't pointed out that he knew how to move through the tunnels. He then mentally shook his head because Silverbolt was currently running that gauntlet alone.

He hoped that the older mech was alright where ever he currently was.

Slingshot took a turn still moving at the rather fast jog that he had set for as a pace for the group. Air Raid wasn't expecting the turn and flailed slightly as he struggled to keep his balance as he tried to stay all but on Slingshot's heels like he had been doing all along. A small smile quirked Skydive's lip components at the small spectacle he made of himself and a quiet giggle from Fireflight showed that he wasn't the only one to be enjoying the rather out of place comedic act. Skydive expected that Air Raid was doing half of his follies and jokes as more of a way to relieve stress for the rest of them as much as it was a way to help lighten the situation for himself. He made a mental note to thank Air Raid for it later.

"How much further is it?" Fireflight asked in a quiet voice from his position just a few paces ahead of Skydive. After Silverbolt had sealed them in the access tunnel, Skydive had quickly organized the small troupe into a single line formation with Slingshot in the lead and him acting as rear guard. No one seemed to question his decision but the smallest flier had leveled a glare on him that had him do a double take. By then Slingshot's faceplates had become impassive again but Skydive could tell that whatever he had done to deserve such an angry look would come up again before too long.

"Just up ahead," Slingshot whisper even though it seemed to echo back to them easily.

'Just up ahead' turned out to be a lot further then Skydive had thought. He had expected maybe a klik more of running and not the bream and a half it actually was. Skydive's fans were working furiously by the time Slingshot slowed to a stop underneath a rather large hatch with a ladder embedded in the wall leading up to it.

"Alright," Slingshot said a little louder than normal to be heard over his own fans. "Provided that there is nothing sitting on that thing, we should be able to lift it," he gestured with his thumb first at himself and then at Air Raid. "Use the ladder."

"And how are you going to get up there?" Air Raid said as he tucked the energon knives he had been carrying with him the entire time back into his subspace.

Slingshot snorted at him, appearing smugger than Skydive had thought he could be. "I don't have to be in alt to fly," he sneered as a pair of tiny thrusters on his hips suddenly roared to life and he flew up to the ceiling staring down at them.

Air Raid blinked up at him for a moment before barking out a slightly smoothed laugh. "Cute trick!" he chirped as he climbed up the ladder and hooked a leg over a rung once he reached the top to help steady himself. Skydive pulled Fireflight back aways so he wasn't standing directly under the hatch as the other two jetlings grumbled at each other on how to best to open it. Skydive couldn't hear much of their conversation, only knowing that at one point Slingshot had called Air Raid a 'fragging lunatic' which the other jetling had just laughed at, but they seemed to hash out a plan that worked for both of them as Slingshot unlocked the clamps holding the hatch in place and then he and Air Raid lifted it up enough for them to peer out.

"Clear," Slingshot said again in that whisper that seemed to reach everywhere and not be overly loud. The two mechs eased the hatch up enough so that they could slide the locking arm into place that would hold it open. As the two of them disappeared above ground, Skydive gestured for Fireflight to follow them and followed him up the ladder.

They were in an alley similar to the one that they had been in when they had first climbed down into the access tunnels in the first place except this time there was no crashed hover bus. It was also eerily silent. There was something about the lack of noise that put Skydive on edge. Slingshot and Air Raid were already at the end of the alley, peering around the corners out into the street. Fireflight moved to join them but Skydive quickly caught his arm and pulled him back, shaking his head at the confused look he got. "Slingshot, Air Raid," he hissed at the other two mechlings. They stepped back from the vigil and looked at him. Instead of talking again, Skydive motioned to them to come over with his hand wanting to keep the noise down to a minimum. Air Raid came over without a problem while Slingshot bristled slightly before coming back over slowly with a slight scowl on his face.

When the four of them were closer together, Skydive whispered to Slingshot, "How much further to the tram station?"

"It's just down the street," he hissed seemingly impatient. The only good thing was that he kept his voice just as low as Skydive.

"Why are we whispering?" Air Raid with a slight smile on his face, taking the quiet conversation as more of a joke rather than a necessity.

"It's too quiet," Skydive would have added more but Slingshot interrupted.

"Something's wrong, we've got to get out of here." The smallest mech pointed where he and Air Raid had just been standing moments before. "There is enough debris in the street to move like we were before down to the park. We can cut across that and be at the tram station in less than five kliks."

Skydive nodded his head in agreement, the plan was sound. "That park has a bridge a small foot bridge in it right?" Slingshot gave him a hesitant nod and he continued, "We'll use that as cover until Silverbolt gets here." Slingshot snorted in distain and Skydive finally had enough of the superior attitude. He shot the smaller mechling a challenging look, "What?"

Slingshot glared right back seemingly unimpressed by his look, "Hate to break it to you but he's not going to make it. We should get to the tram station and get out of the city while we still can, not hang around waiting for someone who isn't going to show up."

Skydive didn't get to say anything before Fireflight jumped sounding upset, "Slingshot!"

Slingshot heaved a sigh before addressing him, "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news 'Flight, but Silverbolt isn't going to make it."

"Uh, yeah he is," Air Raid piped up laying a hand on Fireflight's shoulder in an attempt to try and calm him down. He looked like he was about to cry.

"Silverbolt-" Skydive tried to step into the conversation but Slingshot spun towards him with anger in his optics.

"You three just don't get it! He's out there, all alone, trying to cross a good portion of the city that is in the middle of a fight! He's not going to get here and waiting around for someone to not show up is worse than just moving on and expect him to catch up to us!"

His vents were whirling harder than any of theirs and it was then that Skydive realized that the smaller jetling was much more upset than he was trying to let on. Still, they had to stay together and Silverbolt had left him in charge. It was ultimately his call, and he was going to wait, "Slingshot, Silverbolt left me in charge an-"

In hindsight, that had been about the worst thing possible to say.

Skydive had just enough time to process the flash of outrage that swept across Slingshot's face before his helmet was being rocked back as something hit his jaw hard. He stumbled backwards, circuits still trying to repair themselves after the rocket exploded next to him were scrambled worse than they had been before. The ground seemed to shift out from under his peds and he hit the ground hard, his ventilations letting out a hard chuff of air from the impact.

The muted sounds of a heated argument were going on nearby as Air Raid's faceplates suddenly filled his view. It looked like he was saying his name but Skydive couldn't seem to process that. It was like his audios were muffled by something. Air Raid suddenly looked off to the side and said something before whipping his head around and saying something else. Everything seemed to be happening to fast for Skydive and he let his optics shutter slightly as Air Raid suddenly jumped up and ran out of his visual field.

Fireflight came into his view and flopped down next to him, clutching his rifle with one hand while the other was pressed over his mouth. Skydive could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking and the glazed look to his optics that Fireflight was doing what he could to not burst into tears. He needed to know what was going on and set his vocalize and audios to the highest priority on the repair cue. It still seemed to take forever for his auto-repair to work but when it finally did, Skydive was met with Fireflight's harsh sobs that he was only able to partially muffle.

Skydive grunted as he sat up slowly, Fireflight too caught up to even notice his recovery. He still felt dazed and his motor relays were firing sporadically making him tremble slightly as he propped himself up on his servos. He glanced around the alley, a sinking feeling of dread settling in his tank. Air Raid and Slingshot were both gone.

Turning to the only mech who could possibly have the answers, Skydive reached over and pulled Fireflight close enough to gently knock their helmets together. "Fireflight, calm down please," he said, annoyed that there was still static clinging to his voice. "What happened? Where are Air Raid and Slingshot?"

The prompted a harsher sob from Fireflight as he suddenly wrapped his arms tightly around Skydive and buried his faceplates in the recovering jetling's neck cables. Skydive froze, a casual helmet knock or grip on the arm was one thing but he did not like being hugged like this. It reminded him of what it felt like to be buried. However, it seemed to be providing Fireflight with some measure of comfort so he forced himself to relax. After another few astroseconds though he couldn't take it any longer and squirmed while prompting the other flier again, "Fireflight?"

Fireflight took a shudder inhalation before leaning back away from Skydive wiping at the coolant leaking from his optics. He looked down at his gun and took another ventilation before finally speaking. "Slingshot hit you." He had kind of figured that one out, Slingshot had one nasty punch. "And then he said he was going to the tram station with or without us. He asked me to go with him and I refused. I wanted to wait for Silverbolt too and I was worried that we would be too far away to get to him if he needed our help. Slingshot then called me an idiot and I told him to go eat slag if he was unhappy about it, that's what I was doing."

The jetling fell silent after that and Skydive had to repeat his second question, "Where are they, Fireflight?"

The other jet sniffled and then pointed off towards the opposite end of the alley that the other two had been scanning before everything had happened. "Slingshot growled at me and then ran off down the alley and around the corner. Air Raid yelled at him to stop but he kept going. 'Raider told me to stay with you and they he took off after him."

Skydive silently cursed to himself before slowly climbing back to his peds. Slingshot and Air Raid could be halfway back to the youth center by now. There was no point in trying to go after them. The best he and Fireflight could do was wait and hope that Air Raid came back totting a rather pissed off jetling with him.

It was only a few kliks later that Air Raid came back but without Slingshot. Firefight whimpered as Air Raid trotted up to them, his vents working furiously as he looked at Skydive with dimmed optics. "Sorry, I could barely keep up with him. He lost me down near some bombed out energon stores." The usually enthusiastic mech gave a weak shrug seemingly drained of energy, "I don't know where he went. I'm sorry."

Skydive reached out and looped an arm around Fireflight's shoulders as another sob broke free from him, inviting a hug even though he cringed at the thought of it. Fireflight was soon tucked up underneath his arm, whining against his chestplate. "Don't apologize," he told Air Raid, reaching over with his unoccupied arm and giving the other jetling's arm a gentle squeeze. "You didn't do anything wrong. You did everything you could."

Air Raid nodded his head but didn't seem to do more than acknowledge what Skydive had said. Skydive sighed and then looked back down at the mech burying his face against his side. "Fireflight, I know you are upset but we need to get moving." Fireflight just seemed to hold him even tighter. "Slingshot knows that the tram is most likely the best way to get out of Vos, he'll probably loop back around and try to get to the station."

Fireflight was finally looking at him with wide optics, seemingly hanging on his every word. Skydive hoped that he wasn't lying to him, "He'll have to pass the park, we can intercept him there."

"And if the little brat still wants to put up a fuss, I have enough sedatives on me to keep him out till the next solar cycle," Air Raid said with an almost sinister look on his faceplates.

"Right!" Fireflight said, doing a complete switch from upset and crying to what had to be the most determined look Skydive had ever seen on his faceplates to date. "Come on, we got to catch him!"

Skydive just nodded his head in agreement, praying to Primus that Slingshot didn't do anything too rash.

-Break-

Silverbolt moved swiftly, ducking behind any cover that he could find as he moved. The feeling of being watched had reached an all-time high and it was all he could do to prevent his ailerons from trembling in fear. He was constantly checking over the rifle he had cradled in his hands, making sure that it was ready to fire over and over again despite the fact that he hadn't seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. There was still fighting off in the distance but the way between him and the tram station seemed to be open.

At least that was what he thought.

He was moving along the side of the street when the store front just in front of him exploded outwards, throwing debris about half his size out in front of him as if they weighed nothing at all. Silverbolt scrambled backwards, his balance compromised and his fuel pump was somewhere up in the vicinity of his neck cables. He hadn't been expecting that. He continued to scramble backwards as a large tankformer that he had never seen before came crashing through the remains of the store front. He didn't even know of any tankformers in the city.

The tank began to transform and Silverbolt jumped over what had once been a corner of a building, hoping that it hadn't seen him. He flattened his back against it, clutching the rifle to his chest like a cuddle toy. He heard the tank stand up and then the heavy pedsteps as it stomped over towards him. '_Oh, please no,_' he thought to himself as he worked up the courage to glance over the edge of his cover. The sight of a charging ion cannon being aimed right at him caused him to squeak.

Silverbolt lunged to the side as the cannon discharged, blowing right through his cover and close enough to him that he felt the heat of it along his back and wings. He rolled out from behind his cover and jumped to his peds, rifle up and aimed at the tankformer's helmet. He doubted that the rifle had the power to go through the tank's armor but around his helmet it would be the lightest and his only chance to take out the tank that was almost three times bigger than him.

The rifle jerked in his grip, the stock digging into his shoulder for a moment as he pulled the trigger. The electron pulse slammed into the tank's helmet, right behind his left optic. He roared in pain as the electrical current dug into his circuitry and he lashed out, swinging his arm in a wide arch in a move that Silverbolt hadn't counted on. He grunted as it slammed into his torso, sweeping him off his feet and throwing him across ground.

Metal squealed on metal as he hit the ground on one shoulder and skidded across it before tumbling into a graceless roll. He came to a stop, lying on the ground while his equilibrium chip tried to catch up with his moment. His ventilations were coming in hard chuffs that sent the fine dust around him swirling as it was disturbed. His servo clutched weakly at the rifle that he still managed to keep a grip on.

Even though his processor was still hazy and his audios were filled with static, Silverbolt could still hear the tankformer's peds slam into the ground as it charged towards him. He had to get moving but even though he sent the commands to his body to get out of the way, it was slow to respond. He didn't think that he was even going to be able to roll over on his back and bring the rifle back around to shot it again before the tank would be on him. Internally he cursed. He had lied to both Fireflight and Slingshot.

Silverbolt winced as something large moved over him at the same time the ground heaved. The explosion was so loud and close that he felt his frame vibrate almost painfully from the shockwave. He barely had time to recover from the initial explosion as someone hauled him up by his collar armor and shoved him forward. He didn't need to hear anything to know what he had to do. He sprinted forward, fueled by pure fear.

The ground beneath his peds shivered as another explosion followed by the sounds of gunfire came from behind him. He didn't dare turn around to see what was happening, complete content with running down the street to put as much distance between him and the fight raging behind him as possible. He would have run all the way to the tram station had someone not grabbed him by the collar armor and half dragged him into a nearby alley.

He tripped over his own peds as he stumbled into the alley being half dragged by whoever had been chasing him. He flopped hard onto the ground as the mech who had dragged him there peeked around the corner of the building at the fight. Silverbolt leaned back against the wall suddenly feeling weary, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball and rest.

"You always did manage to get yourself into the worst situations possible."

Slverbolt's dimmed optics brightened as he recognized that voice. Whipping his helmet around he was greeted with the familiar form of his carrier as the mech moved away from the corner of the building and over to crouch down next to him. "Are you alright, bitlet?" Windswept asked, the dirty battle mask hid his faceplates but the tint of his optics behind the visor was proof enough that he was smiling at him.

Half a dozen questions warred for his attention as Silverbolt stared up at his carrier but all of them were shoved to the side as the knot of fear that had clutched around his spark finally loosened. He chirped as he all but tossed his rifle to the side and launched himself into Windswept's chassis, keening and shivering as everything that had happened to him finally seemed to catch up in his processor. All the times he had nearly been deactivated came back and Silverbolt felt like he was drowning in the emotions racing through him.

Windswept's arms wrapped around him just as tightly and he clicked to the distraught youngling in his arms. "You're okay now Silverbolt. You're safe." Silverbolt chirped again as the large flier smoothed a servo along his wings in comfort. "You're alright."

Silverbolt didn't know how long he sat there, curled against his carrier, crying his optics out but it seemed all to soon that Windswept was pulling back enough to look at him. "Feel better?" he asked in a soft voice before looking him over. "You're not hurt anywhere are you bitlet?"

Silverbolt nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed to have bawled like he had and wiped at the coolant still staining his faceplates. "I'm alright, just a little scratched up and I have a few dings."

"Good," Windswept surged forward then, clutching Silverbolt to him in a strong embraced. "Primus, when I got back to the room and found the dead mech and you and the rifle missing…" he trailed off but Silverbolt knew exactly what he would have said.

"I'm fine," he said as he let his creator hold him.

Windswept heaved a sigh and let go of him, leaning backwards enough as he picked up the rifle that Silverbolt had tossed and checked it over quickly. "You've done well to only have fired it half a dozen times. I'm glad that you haven't run into too much trouble."

"Yeah," Silverbolt said as he thought of everything that had happened as Windswept handed him back the rifle. "I think Fireflight fired it more than I have."

"Fireflight?"

"One of the other younglings that I escape the youth center with."

Windswept's optics brightened, "Other younglings got out of the youth center before ammo detonated?"

"Yeah, there are five of us altogether," Silverbolt said with a little shake of his helmet. "I made the other four go through the access tunnels, I couldn't fit down there with them. They're going to be expecting me to meet up with them at the tram station s-"

"The tram station!" Windswept exclaimed, cutting Silverbolt off. He heaved a sigh as his optics dimmed, "Silverbolt, you are not going to the tram station."

"But the oth-"

Again he was interrupted, "Are most likely deactivated." He wiped a servo across his visor as if to clear it before continuing. "According to the reports, rebels have taken over the facility and are using it as a killing ground for any mechs that enter trying to escape the conflict."

At first, Silverbolt wanted to deny it but the way Windswept was looking at him told him that it as the truth. His processor immediately called up images of the four of them as a sense of failure and fear settled in his tank and clutched at his spark. He immediately tried to comm either Slingshot or Fireflight but an error flashed at the bottom of his visor. They were too far away.

"It's not your fault Silverbolt," Windswept said as he caught the back of his helmet and tipped it forward enough to knock their helmets together. "You didn't know."

Silverbolt shuttered his optics tightly. Despite his creator's words of comfort he couldn't help but feel responsible for what could possible happen to the other four younglings. Maybe they were held up in the access tunnels and he could still get a comm off to warn them in time. It was a faint possibility but that little thought process bloomed into a small measure of hope. "I might still be able to warn them, I unlocked two of the jetlings' comms…"

Windswept sighed again and gave him an almost pitying look, "Just don't get too close to the tram station." His creator looked like he was about to say something else before shaking his head and reaching into his subspace, pulling out a large survival pack. "Here, I want you to take this."

"Why?" Silverbolt said confused even as he moved to tuck it into his subspace.

"You're going to need it to get to Nexus."

"How am I going to get to Nexus if I can't use the tram?" Silverbolt shuttered his optics as he realized what Windswept just said. "And why am I going alone? Aren't you coming with me?" Windswept didn't have to say anything for Silverbolt to know why, "You don't have to stay here and fight! You're supposed to defend the youth center and that's gone! Shouldn't you protect the survivors of the collapse?!"

Windswept heaved another sigh as his battle mask and visor slid aside, revealing a weary looking mech. "If I go with you, I have to log on the city computers why I left the Twenty Fourth Battalion and the city limits. While you are right that it is what I should do, I won't to help protect you." Silverbolt frowned as his creator continued the feeling of fear and dread in his tank and spark seeming to expand with every word. "From what intelligence has managed to gather, the rebels targeted the youth center first because, while they want to destroy the weapons stored there, it was primarily to deactivate all the younglings. They are seeing it as a form of mercy to spare them from this civil war. If they happen to hack the computers and learn that even so much as one youngling survived, they would hunt you down to make sure you were deactivated."

A squeak escaped him but the servo that grasped his shoulder silenced any form of protest he might have been able to cobble together. Windswept held his optics with an eerie intent as he calmly started talking again. "You're smart and resourceful, two traits that you got from your sparker, and that is how you will get to Nexus. I gave you a level five survival pack, that will have everything you possibly could need to cross the Rust Sea and reach Nexus." An even louder squeak escaped him and the servo tightened its grip just enough to keep him focused on what his creator said next. "Don't dally around in the city, the only way those other younglings would have survived is if they realized what was happening at the tram station and didn't enter it, if you can't get ahold of them as you leave the city, don't go looking for them. Just leave and save yourself."

His spark ached as Silverbolt realized that this was quite possibly the last time he would ever see his carrier online again. Everything he wanted to say, to know and understand why were completely forgotten as the young mech realized that he only wanted one thing. "I don't want to go without you," a keen was building up in his throat again and coolant began to build up behind his optics. "I want to stay with you."

Windswept shuttered his optics as if Silverbolt's words cut him to through to the spark. "I know, bitlet, but you need to leave." Silverbolt was pulled back into a hug and he clutched at his creator as if his spark depended on it. "All I want right now is to know that the spark I carried to term made it to Nexus online and is safely there with his other creator. Can you do that for me?" He managed to nod his helmet against the chassis it was pressed into. "I am so proud you Silverbolt, with everything you've done and everything you've put up with. I am honored to have you as my bitlet."

Silverbolt whined and clung to his creator a moment longer after the larger mech first tried to push him away. There was so much that he found himself wanting to say and yet nothing seemed to come out. He finally let go of his carrier and stared up at his faceplates, doing his best to memorize the familiar features. Windswept stared back at him before heaving a sigh and rising to his peds, helping Silverbolt up as he went.

They stood there for a long moment, staring at each other, but it seemed like all too soon Windswept was glancing back over his shoulder in the direction that they came from. "There's a rebel battle group moving in."

Again Silverbolt's mouth opened to say something but nothing came out. Windswept reached up slowly and reached into a small seam in his chest plate, undoing a latch and pulling the heavy metal plate back enough to remove something too small for Silverbolt to properly make out. "Here," he said offering it to him. "I want you to have this."

What was dropped into Silverbolt's cupped servos was by far the smallest charms he had ever seen. Barely half an astroinch long, the charm was of an Aerial alt mode. The alt was all silver but with streaks of blue highlighting the forward edge of its wings and dual tail fins. It looked a lot like Windswept's alt.

"Starglider gave it to me shortly after we became bonded. He's always said he was a bit of a traditionalist," Windswept said with a small smile. "I always called him old fashioned." He gestured to the small figurine, "Anyway, that's a good luck charm, it's supposed to grant its holder protection no matter how turbulent the skies he finds himself flying through."

"You should keep it," Silverbolt said, his voice staticy and thin.

"You need it more than I do," Windswept took one last long look at him before the battle mask and visor slid back into place, covering his faceplates and optics. "Get going, remember what I said and put your trust in yourself. You give yourself far too little credit."

Silverbolt quickly tucked the small charm away in his subspace, vowing to put it where Windswept had hidden it later. "You'll join us, right? In Nexus?"

His question seemed to take Windswept by surprise and there was a faint warble in his voice as he spoke again. "I will do everything in my power to meet up with you two." He ducked down and tapped their helmets together one last time. "Now hurry, the group almost here. I'll make sure no one chases after you. Go." Windswept pushed him slightly but Silverbolt felt like his peds were welded to the ground. It took a harder shove and a harsh yell to make him finally move. "GO!"

He sprinted down the alley, gun clutched so tightly in his servos he vaguely wondered if it was possible for him to crush it. As he reached the far end of the alley he slowed to a stop and looked back at the large silver and blue aerial standing at the opposite end of the alley watching him. Silverbolt took an image capture of Windswept, hoping that he was wrong and that he would see his creator again, but knowing he was right.

He was never going to see his carrier again.

Windswept gave him a small wave before purposefully turning around and heading back out onto the street to rejoin his Battalion before the battle group reached them. Silverbolt returned the wave and then ran away before he charged down the street and grabbed Windswept again. He knew that this time he wouldn't be able to let go.

He began sending out pings as he ran, hoping that he could reach Fireflight or Slingshot in time to warn them as the coolant continued to race down his faceplates and he ignored the sounds of battle coming from behind him.


End file.
